The Netherlands has served as the California of Europe, setting trends for the continent from the Enlightenment ideas of Baruch Spinoza to global trade spurred by 17th century Dutch maritime power, and the tolerance and openness symbolised by Amsterdam’s coffee shops and red-light district.
It has also been at the very core of Europe’s postwar integration, a founding member of every major institution from Nato to the euro itself. But in recent months the Netherlands has arguably become the most obstructionist country in Brussels’ fights over the EU’s future.
The Dutch government ardently opposed giving the eurozone’s €440bn bail-out fund more powers to help the EU’s debt-laden periphery. It is increasingly isolated in blocking EU enlargement to the western Balkans. And it has pressed Brussels to overhaul asylum and migration policies amidst a flood of north African refugees on Europe’s shores.
Dutch officials strongly object to being labelled obstructionist. But it is no coincidence that the minority Dutch government last year became the first eurozone country since the financial crisis began to rely on an openly anti-EU party – the Freedom party of anti-Muslim populist Geert Wilders – to stay in power.
As a result, the Dutch government has not only ignored Mr Barroso’s advice to shun populist sentiments; it is warning Brussels to pay more attention to people’s rising anger and sense of economic insecurity, and to take their fears more seriously.
via www.ft.com
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