Cameron's EU speech causes Dutch unease
2013-01-17 12:57
The Hague - The Dutch are increasingly uneasy about Prime Minister David
Cameron coming to The Netherlands to make his speech on Britain's future in
Europe, with some critics saying he'd be better off staying at home.
Friday's speech, billed as one of the most important by a British leader
since World War II, is expected to see Cameron call for exemptions from EU
rules and moot a referendum, in a bid to appease eurosceptics at home.
But such strident nationalism within the world's largest trading bloc has
even the traditionally anglophile Dutch worried about the potential impact on
European Union solidarity and stability.
The speech will be preceded by talks in The Hague with centre-right Prime
Minister Mark Rutte, a close ally of Cameron. But he will be noticeably absent
during the actual speech, to be given in Amsterdam.
Evolving relationship
Like Britain, The Netherlands is a triple-A rated country, a major trading
nation and a believer in budgetary discipline. But the previously cosy
relationship between Cameron and Rutte is evolving.
His VVD party has toned down its euro-scepticism since entering a coalition
with Labour (PvdA) last year. The PvdA's foreign policy spokesperson has called
for Rutte to distance himself from Cameron's words.
"It's important that Prime Minister Rutte says publicly that The
Netherlands sees no benefit in British exceptions on key points of European
cooperation," Michiel Servaes told financial daily the Financieele Daglad.
The European Union is not "a construction from which Cameron can remove
a couple of bricks, according to his wishes", he said.
Cameron and Rutte have a close relationship and giving the much-delayed
speech in The Netherlands is acceptable to the tolerant Dutch, even if they
don't agree with its content.
Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans admitted on Dutch television on Tuesday
night that "if there's one country in Europe that shares Britain's vision
a little bit then that's us".
Standing strong
But, said Timmermans: "The Netherlands is not for opt-outs, and we
never have been."
"The Netherlands believes in desperately-needed reform of the EU, from
the inside out, not in making the EU better, cheaper and in particular more
democratic by walking away," he said.
Servaes, who previously worked as a diplomat in London, agreed in the
NRC-Next daily that Britain's role in the EU was important, and that the
Netherlands had much in common with Britain.
In wanting to reduce Brussels bureaucracy, reform the Common Agricultural
Policy, draw up ambitious Europe-wide trade or environment policies, the Dutch
and the British are side by side, he wrote.
But if Britain wants less European interference in social norms such as
wages, restrictions on freedom of movement for workers or less oversight for
City bankers, then the answer is 'no'.
"We should not just accept Cameron's wishlist. We still have to see
what exactly he will say in his speech," Servaes wrote.
Servaes quoted British foreign minister and later prime minister George
Canning who wrote in 1826 that "The fault of the Dutch is offering too
little and asking too much".
"Cameron should remember Canning: if you don't want to give much, then
don't ask much of others," he wrote.
Speculation
Paul Webber, spokesperson for VVD MP and foreign affairs committee member
Mark Verheijen, said: "We don't know what the speech will be about and so
we won't distance ourselves from it."
"If Britain wants responsibilities returned [to national governments]
then that should be the same for all member states, not just Britain," he said.
"A separate status for one member state within Europe is not a good
idea," he said.
Political analyst Hulke Dijkstra was even more forthright.
"If David Cameron is coming to The Netherlands to distance himself from
the European Union then he'd be better off staying at home," he wrote in
the leftist Volkskrant daily.
"It is regrettable that our government is giving Cameron a platform to
engage in national politics," Dijkstra said.
He noted that while Washington, Brussels and Berlin have all spoken out against
a British referendum on the EU, predicted to be part of Cameron's speech, Rutte
sees the event as "a nice photo-op".
Dijkstra reminded Cameron of what his predecessor Margaret Thatcher said in
Bruges, Belgium in 1988 when she laid out her vision for Britain's future in
Europe.
"Britain does not dream of some cosy, isolated existence on the fringes
of the European Community," Thatcher said. "Our destiny is in Europe,
as part of the Community."
