Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Some Dutch parties/individuals demand an EU referendum

Dear reader,

since the speech by British PM David Cameron was finally published, there have been some calls in The Netherlands to hold such a referendum,too:
Some Dutch politicians, economics professors and professors of other faculties support the idea to let the people decide.
Perhaps a bit premature to call it a 'debate', since those demands failed so far to gain broad support. (Also only a few search results when using Google) 


Jan 23rd 2013 David Cameron's EU speech - full text (The Guardian)

The Dutch referendum website (in Dutch)



Jan 23rd 2013 Wilders: The Netherlands deserves a referendum, too (Eindhovens Dagblad) #
Jan 24th 2013 Coalition parties feel nothing for a referendum on EU  (nu.nl) #
Jan 24th 2013 Dijsselbloem: nonsensical EU referendum doesn't help us (Elsevier.nl) #
Jan 24th 2013 No PvdA (Labor) support for PVV's (Wilders-party) referendum plans (RTL nieuws) #
Jan 26th 2013 Irrevocably towards a federal union. We demand a referendum, too! (NRC) # (signed by several professors) 
Jan 26th 2013 (Foreign Minister) Timmermans thinks call for a Dutch referendum on Europe is 'stale' (Trouw) #
Jan 28th 2013 EU exit: Dutch professors start referendum (Deutsche Mittelstands Nachrichten) *
Jan 30th 2013 U-nie(t) [can't translate headline] (groene.nl) #
Jan 30th 2013 Referendum ! (Ewald Engelen, groene.nl) #
Feb 26th 2013 EU-referendum: Already some 39.000 signatures (nijmegenonline.nl) #
Mar 3rd 2013 64% of Dutch people want an EU referendum (telegraaf.nl)#
Mar 4th 2013 Resistance D66 against EU referendum makes sense (hpdetijd.nl)#
Mar 5th 2013 EU referendum now on parliament's agenda (nos.nl)#
Mar 5th 2013 Citizen's petition forces chamber to debate about referendum(Volkskrant)#
Mar 6th 2013 Petition forces parliament to debate EU referendums (Dutchnews)

 




 # = Dutch , * = German  language 

note: If there are some new developments they will be added 

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Dutch finance minister Dijsselbloem new chairman of Eurogroup

Dutch finance ministry: Policy Priorities Eurogroup Presidency  
(pdf,English,6 pages)(via FinPermRepEU)

Jeroen Dijsselbloem (Wiki, English)



Toby Sterling, AP reporter in Amsterdam explains how Dijsselbloem's name is properly pronounced:
One more time, English speakers. To pronounce "Dijsselbloem" say the English words "Die" - "Sell" - "Bloom." Accent falls on "Die."
 (source: Twitter: @lbsterling, Jan 18th 2013 15.13 CET)
By popular request: Dijsselbloem is pronounced like the English words "Dye-sell-bloom" or, second best, "Dazzle bloom."
 (source: Twitter: @lbsterling, Jan 18th 2013 15.43 CET)

(Jeroen = 'Ye' - 'roon' <= this author's take)

A report by Dutch public TV - NOS about J. Dijsselbloem to chair Eurogroup gives additional opportunity to learn about the correct pronunciation ;-)

(source: Dijsselbloem ook van Frankrijk groen licht, Nieuwsuur, Jan 21st 2013)

Dutch Finance Minister's Twitter handle: