Amsterdam - The Dutch government will take measures to prevent classified information about the royal family from becoming public after journalists found sensitive material in rubbish deposited by the queen's office, reports said Wednesday. Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende announced the measures on Tuesday evening, after a TV current affairs programme had shown how the secretarial office of Queen Beatrix in The Hague deposits its rubbish, including classified information about the royal family, in a dumpster accessible to the general public.
The journalists went to a back street of the secretarial office seven times, taking a total of 24 garbage bags from the dumpster, retrieving information about upcoming state visits of the queen until 2010.
They also found information about planned work visits in Holland of the queen, her son Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife Princess Maxima from March to July 2007. The journalists also collected a treasure of private phone numbers and addresses of members of the royal family and high civil servants.
The journalists did not disclose any classified information they retrieved, claiming it would be "too sensitive." Instead, they showed how the queen's secretariat failed to protect classified information.
The current affairs programme, meanwhile, has returned all papers to the royal information service RVD. The RVD said: "What happened is not good. We have taken measures to prevent this in the future."
The queen's office is known for its strict security measures. Employees hired at the office are thoroughly screened and work according to the most stringent security regulations.
Legislator Laetitia Griffith of the Liberal VVD party intends to ask the prime minister on Wednesday how classified information could have been treated with such negligence. She fears members of the royal family "were unnecessarily exposed and their safety endangered."
Balkenende said on Tuesday "this should never have happened. We will make sure the mistake is not repeated."
One of the few things the journalists did disclose, concerned the queen's state visits. Presumably, a total of 10 state visits have been planned until 2010. This seems to indicate the queen intends to stay in power at least until then.
