The Netherlands has banned the use of emblems involving windmills, tulips and clogs in favour of a more modern image as it takes over the EU’s helm for the next six months.
By avoiding such traditional symbols, it hopes to make the EU more relevant to millions of disenchanted citizens by tackling issues such as illegal immigration and security, and delivering more jobs and stronger growth.
Jan-Peter Balkenende, the centre-right prime minister, who took over the union’s rotating hot seat on Thursday, knows he has an unusually tough act to follow.
Ireland’s prime minister, Bertie Ahern, won unprecedented plaudits for overseeing the EU’s historic enlargement in May, as well as forging a bitterly contested deal on a Constitution and a new president of the European commission.
The Dutch are expecting a quieter stint. ”The Netherlands is not out to rock the boat,” Balkenende assured the outgoing European commission president, Romano Prodi, and his colleagues in The Hague. ”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.”
The Dutch do face a huge decision in December: whether to give Turkey the green light to start long-awaited EU membership talks.
Balkenende is as pro-American, pro-Nato and pro-Turkish as Tony Blair, but he is little known on the European stage and will be under enormous pressure as he handles this highly sensitive dossier.
”Whatever we decide”, he said, ”we will need broad-based support, not just now, but into the future.”
On EU internal affairs, he said the union — shown to be deeply unpopular by the low turnout and Eurosceptic successes in last month’s European elections — needed to prove it could give added value and function smoothly.
Tackling illegal immigration will be a big theme for The Netherlands, and one with powerful domestic resonance after the anti-immigrant Pim Fortuyn turned Dutch politics on its head two years ago.
”The Netherlands will push for significant steps toward a common European asylum, migration and integration policy,” the prime minister said. ”Waves of refugees and other migrants are confronting us.”
Cutting red tape in Brussels will be another priority, and he faces a tough task overseeing negotiations on the next six-year EU budget round, where the Netherlands is in the camp of careful northerners who want to cut agricultural spending and keep national contributions down.
Balkenende could face difficulties with France and Germany, which are resented by smaller eurozone countries for their cavalier attitude to the Maastricht treaty budget deficit rules.
If the EU’s new constitution is ratified, this will be the last time the Dutch, one of the six founder members of the EEC, hold the rotating presidency, which will be replaced by a permanent president and a team effort of three countries lasting for 18 months.
With old-fashioned Dutch images ruled out, the presidency logo until December will be made up of the letters NL and the national colours, red, white, blue and orange, in a design that spells out ”EU”. – Guardian Unlimited Â