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In his first interview with foreign press since the new centrist coalition government took office, Mr Rutte said the Netherlands wanted “more Europe” when it came to enforcing budget discipline on Member States and handling Europe-wide financial issues, but not in other areas. “What we want to do is have a debate at the level of the 27 [Member States] whether Europe is not involved in too many areas which could be done at the national level”, he told the Financial Times and three other European newspapers... He declined to mention specific policy areas he considered better handled at the national level, for fear of prejudicing the debate.
If anyone had expected the new government to take a more lenient line on austerity or euro rescue measures than his previous conservative one, he was happy to disabuse them of that notion. The Netherlands will continue to back European austerity measures as a path to economic growth, he said. “We cannot build [a] strong Europe on a pile of debt”.
His comments hold no surprises for the Dutch public, which has grown used to continuity on European issues in Mr Rutte’s new cabinet since its governing accord was presented a month ago. But they contradicted expectations earlier this autumn that the Netherlands’ stance would shift with the inclusion of Europe-friendly Labour in government, and the departure of Geert Wilders’ eurosceptic Party of Freedom to the opposition.
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