Publications
Nederlanders in de Benelux, Jaap Hoogenboezem
Jaap Hoogenboezem is in favour of abolishing the Benelux. For the Dutch government the Benelux has become irrelevant. Ministers no longer attend the Benelux meetings and fail to answer the questions emanating from the Benelux parliament. This is not very surprising given the fact that most policy domains have been taken over by the European Union. Although some Benelux idealists have expressed that the organisation may become a vehicle to unite the small countries in the EU, that it may act as their mouthpiece, or that it may deliver a common European Commissioner in view of the fact that in the future EU of 35 member states no longer each state can have its own Commissioner, it is obvious the political will in the Netherlands to revive the Benelux is almost non-existent.