The Netherlands: Unrest In The Labor Party (PVDA) About JSF Purchase And Other Issues Could Topple Rutte Government

Wouter Bos

The former Dutch Vice-PM, Finance Minister and (PVDA) Labor party leader Wouter Bos, who writes a bi-weekly column for the well know Dutch Volkskrant newspaper  recently expressed his dismay in this column about the present Dutch Government of Mark Rutte's turn to what he called a "classical liberal American and ultimately marginalizing participative society".

"Even The King was allowed to announce that the established Dutch welfare state was going to make place for this so-called "participation society", said Bos 

Bos noted: "If the participation society as expressed in the speech from the throne on "Prinsjesdag" is not only the view of the  PM Rutte, but also that of  the Coalition (which includes the PVDA labor party), than the labor party must have gone through an ideological revolution... please tell me that this is not the case".

Given the unrest in the labor party on several actions undertaken by the government, including the recent decision by Defence Minister Jeanine Hennis and the government to abruptly finalize the year-long discussions about the JSF by unilaterally choosing to purchase 37 JSFs for the air-force at more than 5 billion euro's, has created a swell of protest not only in PVDA  circles, but around the country.

This could lead to a situation, if the present Labor party (PVDA) parliamentary leader Diederik Samsom does not succeed in holding his parliamentary fraction together, whereby several Labor party members would cast their votes in parliament with the opposition against the proposed government budget, and toppling the Rutte government. 

EU-Digest

Dutch plans for EU spring a leak

On 14 January the Dutch government announced that Pieter de Gooijer would be the Netherlands' next permanent representative to the EU. 

The following week de Gooijer's name surfaced in a set of US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks. A US diplomat suggested that de Gooijer, who is currently director-general of political affairs in the Dutch foreign ministry, was involved in trying to sway Wouter Bos, the finance minister at the time, to back the idea of prolonging the Dutch military mission in Afghanistan. 

According to the leaked diplomatic cables, dated 3 September 2009, de Gooijer “encouraged” Ivo Daalder, the US ambassador to NATO, to ask Timothy Geithner, the US treasury secretary, to tell Bos that the Netherlands would not have a seat at G20 discussions if it did not extend its military mission in Afghanistan.

Uri Rosenthal, the Dutch foreign minister, has denied the accuracy of the cable, but questions have been asked in the Dutch parliament as to whether de Gooijer should be trusted to represent the Netherlands in Brussels. 

For more: Dutch plans for EU spring a leak | European Voice

Netherlands: Afghanistan or Education? Dutch Professors join students protesting against Government cuts

One third of all Dutch University professors in the Netherlands joined 20.000 students last Friday in the Hague, protesting against government cuts in the area of education, while at the same time the Dutch Government approved a new military mission to Afghanistan.

Reports from Wikileaks reveal that the US had been putting pressure on the former Dutch coalition Minister of Finance, Wouter Bos of the Labor Party, to vote in favor of a continuation of the Dutch Afghanistan mission. The Labor party leader, however, did not sway under the US pressure, and the Government collapsed, when Wouter Bos pulled his party out of the Balkenende Dutch Government coalition.

Once again the Netherlands, at the request of the US are being asked to participate in Afghanistan. But so far it has not been "easy going" for the new conservative Dutch PM, Mark Rutte, in getting the motion through parliament. Even Mr. Wilders party PVV, one of  Rutte's coalition Government supporting parties, said they would vote against the mission. Mark Rutte is now seeking support from other non-Government parties to get his motion passed in parliament.

To "sweeten the deal" Mr.Rutte calls the new Dutch involvement in Afghanistan a "trainings mission", even though this "trainings mission"  is enforced by air-force and military units. As to Dutch public opinion, continued Afghanistan involvement has little support. In a recent poll approximately 70% of the population said they do not want a new mission to Afghanistan.

The question remains, should the Netherlands be spending taxpayers money on overseas military missions or on education at home?

EU-Digest

Yahoo: Netherlands: Germany and France jeopardize pact - by Robert Wielaard

For the complete report from Yahoo click on this link

Netherlands: Germany and France jeopardize pact - by Robert Wielaard

The Netherlands charged Tuesday that France and Germany are running their economies so differently that they are threatening the rules that underpin the stability of the euro. Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos said France and Germany "are sending different signals about how they regard the necessity to put public finances in order." He told reporters that it was "worrisome" that neither Berlin not Paris will acknowledge publicly that they are taking vastly different paths to return their slumping economies to growth. That, he added, was eroding confidence in the euro budget rules that require governments to contain debt within certain limits. While the German government has advocated limiting debt and bringing government spending back in line, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said "he sees no reason to commit himself in that sense" and plans to allow the deficit widen to stoke growth, Bos said. "That kind of nonintervention can have devastating effects" on the euro stability rules at a time when most of the 16 euro-zone nations have budget gaps far exceeding the limit of 3 percent of gross national product, he said.While the German government has advocated limiting debt and bringing government spending back in line, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said "he sees no reason to commit himself in that sense" and plans to allow the deficit widen to stoke growth, Bos said.

"That kind of nonintervention can have devastating effects" on the euro stability rules at a time when most of the 16 euro-zone nations have budget gaps far exceeding the limit of 3 percent of gross national product, he said.

Dissent Magazine: Does European Social Democracy have a Future?

For the complete report from the Dissent Magazine click on this link

Does European Social Democracy have a Future?

There is one impressive exception to the conventional wisdom among European social democrats that if you ignore or demonize the new left it will go away. Wouter Bos is the leader of the Dutch Labour Party and currently finance minister in the coalition government that was formed after the last Dutch general election. A young man who two years ago was an unrepentant modernizer in the Tony Blair/Gordon Brown mold, he has been thinking long and hard about the social democratic predicament. Above all, he is concerned about what the threat from the left means, not just for his own party but for the political future of social democracy across Europe. The value of Bos’s analysis—which he presented to the Hertfordshire conference—is that it goes far below the surface of what some seem to regard wrongly as transient and superficial shifts in electoral commitments and preferences. The word crisis is overdone and may still be too strong to describe the outlook for social democracy in Europe, but fundamental social and economic trends suggest it faces an uphill struggle if it hopes to make a strong and effective comeback in the years ahead.

Bos has gone so far as to suggest that European social democracy in its present modernizing form is facing a new and formidable political challenge that threatens its historic dominance on the continent’s center-left. He is concerned with what he sees as the growth in diversity and fragmentation in European societies that are caused mainly by the impact of the dynamic and destructive forces of globalization on everyday life. People are becoming more divided in their own perceived interests and not just by class and gender but by ethnicity, religion, education, family, work, and career patterns as well as in their incomes and the amount of wealth and power they enjoy. National borders in Europe are growing more porous and less relevant with the free movement of capital, goods and services, and now labor through mass migrations.

ECOFIN: Dutch Fin Min: No Risk Of Econ Recession In Europe

For the complete report from ECOFIN click on this link

Dutch Finance Minister Bos: "No Risk Of Economic Recession In Europe"

"There is no risk that Europe's economy will experience a recession this year, Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos said Tuesday. And speaking to reporters ahead of a meeting of finance ministers from the 27 members of the European Union, Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders concurred, but added there is a risk of a slowdown. Reynders added that the E.U. finance ministers, known as Ecofin, will monitor developments in global financial markets "very closely." European and Asian stock markets plummeted Monday, and Asian markets lost further ground Tuesday. But Jean-Claude Juncker, who heads the Euro Group of finance ministers from the 15 E.U. members that use the euro, repeated his view that the euro-zone economy is in better shape that its U.S. counterpart, and added that "it won't happen that we in Europe" have to resort to launching fiscal stimulus packages, as the U.S. administration did last week. Asked if E.U. economies would enter recession, Bos said "no, no." He added that the Dutch economy was well positioned to deal with the turmoil in financial markets, which he attributed to "uncertainty" about the outlook for the U.S. economy. "The fundamentals are very good," Bos said. "We can take a blow and still be healthy."

Editorial Note EU-Digest: "Mr. Wouter Bos probably is right, based on the actual situation. Euro area's GDP in 2007 will be about $11.9 trillion(according to IMF estimates). U.S. imports from the Euro area have totaled $245 billion in 2007 through November; let's say $267 billion for the full year. So the Euro area's exports to the U.S. account for just two and a quarter percent of its GDP. How much of a drop in US imports (Europe's exports) might we have in a U.S. recession? Last recession US imports fell by 5.5 percent. If with the fall of the dollar, US imports really drop, by say ten percent. That would cut 0.2 percent off Europe's growth rate, plus multiplier effects if any. That by itself does not send Europe into recession. As for the echo effect, U.S. exports to the Euro area amount to about 1.3 percent of US GDP. So by taking 1.3 percent of a 0.2 percent drop and you get a trivially small number, less than three thousandths of one percent. So forget an echo recession in Europe. That is if we base it only on what is happening in the US."

Gulfnews: Netherlands keen to attract Islamic banking says Wouter Bos, Dutch Finance Minister

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Netherlands keen to attract Islamic banking says Wouter Bos, Dutch Finance Minister

The Dutch government will look into ways to attract Islamic banking to the Netherlands, the finance ministry said in a letter to parliament. "We think there are chances for the Dutch financial sector," said Finance Minister Wouter Bos in a letter on Friday answering questions from lawmakers. "Dubai and London are developing into the international centres for Islamic banking. The Netherlands is fit to also play a role here," Bos added.