This pragmatism has not necessarily extended to the principle of a federal union. The Dutch fear of the newly created Commission being dominated by big member states lay behind the creation of the Council (and its requirement for unanimity) in the 1950s. This equivocal attitude to major EU projects is shown by Eurobarometer figures from 1992 following the success of the internal market programme. Almost 80% of the population supported the EU, but the (newly agreed) Maastricht Treaty was supported by fewer than 50% of those polled.
The uneasy relationship with the EU has persisted. Although the Dutch parliament voted against allowing any additional powers to shift to Brussels, both the cabinet and parliament warmly supported the stronger fiscal rules for the Eurozone as defined by the ‘Six Pack' and stronger supervision by the ‘independent' EU Commissioner. The belief that independent supervision of budgets and economic policies is in the Dutch interest had been reinforced by the way the French and Germans had themselves broken the Stability and Growth Pact when it suited them.
This interest in ensuring a level economic and political playing field is a strong Dutch tendency. The Eurobarometer of December 2011 suggested that 70% of the Dutch support globalisation, with a similar percentage believing that the EU offered the Netherlands a voice in international policy making. This fundamentally pro-internationalisation attitude is also demonstrated by the consistently high levels of Dutch support for the EU in the Eurobarometer. However, support for the EU on particular issues varies and seems to depend heavily on an assessment whether the EU's involvement adds value: for instance this holds in areas such as defence and foreign affairs (62%), migration (58%), environmental policy (80%), combating terrorism (89%) and support for regions facing economic difficulties (72%); but not in areas such as social welfare (21%), tackling unemployment (30%), and taxation (22%). Again, the attitude seems pragmatic rather than conviction based.
Together with the broad - and persistent - support for European integration in these areas, the Dutch also have a long tradition of supporting the European Commission. Prime Minister Rutte has helped to reinforce Olli Rehn's position as independent commissioner for the economy. Rutte has also underlined the protection the Commission provides for smaller member states, in comparison to the increasingly prevalent intergovernmental European Council approach.
A third preference in Dutch EU policy has come to the fore in recent years. In addition to the political and economic level playing fields, the Dutch government (with the support of all major parties) has argued for what can be called the ‘100% Union': The Dutch want to see that governments from accession countries, as well as from countries in the Eurozone and those joining Schengen, fully respect the rules that have been agreed upon. The Netherlands has been quite successful in enforcing this. For example, Serbia was forced to give in to Dutch demands to capture Ratko Mladic; economic governance is now being reinforced by the more or less independent Commissioner; and the chapters dealing with the rule of law are to be addressed first in future accession negotiations instead of at the end of the accession negotiations. The haircut for banks that had invested in Greece was also related to the 100% Union (as a rule, private sector investments involve risks that should not lead to a burden for tax payers). Such a rule-based approach appeals to the Dutch Calvinist mentality, and also helps to combat scepticism about the EU and the euro. It could also be seen as the result of a lack of vision concerning the architecture of the EU or the inability of political parties to formulate one.
The EU and Dutch party politics
The parties towards the centre of Dutch politics - the Christian Democrats and the Labour Party - have traditionally been pro-EU. The Labour Party has had to find a painful balance over the past few crisis years between austerity and the distribution of social costs, while also paying attention to the pro-economic reform bias of the Dutch public (82% in favour according to the Eurobarometer, irrespective of whether they were imposed by Brussels). The Greens and the Liberals (D66) are also pro-EU, and even the hard line Socialist Party in not anti-EU per se, arguing instead for a different type of EU. As a result of the broadly pro-European stance consensus within Dutch politics the Rutte government was kept in power by the Labour Party (the largest opposition party) when it faced tough EU decisions such as support programmes for Greece and Ireland. A large majority of the Dutch parliament approved all steps towards further integration on budgetary and economic matters taken by the Eurozone and the EU (even when an intergovernmental approach superseded the preferred Commission approach), acknowledging pressure from financial markets and a consensus on the need to save the euro.
