THE NETHERLANDS: The Netherlands has begun its six-month EU presidency with a promise to maintain continuity and momentum rather than overloading the Union with new initiatives
The Dutch Prime Minister, Dr Jan Peter Balkenende, said that, after the accession of 10 new member-states, agreement on the constitutional treaty, the election of a new European Parliament and the appointment later this year of a new European Commission, what the EU needed most was a steady hand.
"The Netherlands is not out to rock the boat. Instead, we aim to keep the boat on course and on speed. We do not aim to load Europe down with a mountain of new plans and strategies. In these changing times, the Netherlands' ambition is to ensure that the plans and policies already made are carried out with energy," he said.
Dr Balkenende was speaking during a visit to The Hague by the European Commission to discuss the presidency programme for the next six months. The Commission president, Mr Romano Prodi, identified as key issues the debate on the EU's next multi-annual budget plan and a decision on whether to start accession negotiations with Turkey.
Mr Prodi said the Commission would introduce legislative proposals for the budget plan, known as Financial Perspectives, on July 14th.
"The Financial Perspective is an opportunity to give the enlarged Union a real sense of political purpose - and the means to achieve its ambitions. It is not about redistributing resources between member-states. It is about maximising the impact of our common policies to further enhance the added value of every euro spent at European level. Fundamentally, the European Union is a community of solidarity. Our spending benefits the Union as a whole, whether they are net beneficiaries or net contributors," he said.
Mr Balkenende said the Netherlands remained convinced that it bore an unfair share of the cost of running the EU.
"The Netherlands is by far the biggest net contributor ... The ordinary Dutchman pays six times as much as the ordinary Frenchman," he said.
He also suggested Britain's budget rebate, negotiated by Mrs Thatcher during the 1980s, should be abolished. "This belongs to another period in European history," he said.
