Plans to wipe 100 million euros off the budget of Netherlands Public Broadcasting (NPO) from 2016, on top of a 200 million-euro cut imposed in 2011, are taking austerity too far, EBU President Jean-Paul Philippot said today.

“The Dutch government needs to realize that this proposal is excessive and should be dropped,” said Mr Philippot.

He added: “While belt tightening is necessary, cutting 300 million from NPO’s budget – one third of the total – is akin to tightening a noose around its ability to serve the public properly.”

“NPO deserves credit for making radical reforms to absorb the last round of cuts while honouring its commitment to continue producing high quality, multiplatform programming.”

NPO has already launched a savings plan that includes scaling back the number of broadcasting organizations under its umbrella from 22 to eight in 2015, once the 200 million euro cut takes effect.

Under that package the budget of the broadcasting orchestras and choirs were halved, and that of a reduced Radio Netherlands Worldwide was shifted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

But new measures tabled by the Dutch coalition government would severely weaken NPO – the country’s market leader in terms of radio and TV audience share – and undermine its position as the Netherlands’ most trusted broadcaster.

Henk Hagoort, chairman of the NPO Management Board, said: “Please stop this sell-out of public broadcasting in The Netherlands.  Of course we understand austerity is necessary these days, therefore we accepted the earlier budget cut of 200 million euros. However, an extra 100 million budget cut is a bridge too far. Our audience doesn’t deserve this.”

EBU President Jean-Paul Philippot added: “Cuts this deep will start a downward spiral that it will be near impossible to recover from, starting with a hit on the quality and variety of NPO’s output – the key to its success. This will also lead to harmful knock-on effects on the Dutch creative industries, such as programme and film making.”

While the Dutch public largely accepted the 2011 budget cut as unavoidable, opposition to the latest proposal has been snowballing in the Netherlands.

An NPO petition has already drawn more than 260,000 signatures, and thousands of demonstrators were in The Hague today to protest at what they also believe is an excessive savings measure.