"The Dutch have replaced Britain as Europe’s top troublemakers"

Yet another watershed moment looms for EU as summit ends in acrimony over scale of Covid bailout



e doesn’t swing a handbag as Mrs Thatcher famously used to do at fractious European Union summits during the Eighties. Nor has he yet demanded an opt-out as John Major had to when he was prime minister, or called a referendum as an exasperated David Cameron eventually did.

Even so the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte has taken on the traditional, time-honoured role of Mr No.

At one point France’s president Macron even accused the Dutch of being the new Brits. “You are taking the place of the UK around the table,” he thundered late on Saturday night. In Brussels, there can surely be no more deadly insult.

And yet, in truth, the Dutch better get used to it, and so should the rest of the EU. On any contentious issue – such as creating a common fiscal policy for example – it is ridiculous to expect 27 very different countries, with competing views and interests, to agree.

There will always be a “trouble-maker”. It isn’t a great gig, and you take a lot of flak, but it is built into the system. The Dutch are taking up the mantle, and even if they eventually get fed up and leave someone else will simply take on the role.

Voters in the Netherlands are struggling to understand why they need to take on more debt to finance Italy and Spain.

The Dutch prime minister Rutte has been leading that fight. Again and again he has gone back to the negotiating table insisting on tougher terms.

It is not just president Macron who has been losing his temper. On Twitter, and in the European press, and among other EU leaders, Rutte is suddenly not a “good European” anymore. “You might be a hero in your homeland for a few days, but after a few weeks you will be held responsible before all European citizens for blocking an adequate and effective European response,” snarled the Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte.

Rutte, quite rightly shrugged, it all off. “We’re here because everyone is taking care of their own country, not to go to each other’s birthdays for the rest of our lives,” he said tersely.

The Germans were nt calling the Dutch when the result of Britex was annonuced the one that was always drunk asked the Dutch to sort out all future money for the EU and put them in charge of it all I watched it.

Rutte did a 'Cameron' and backed-down in the end as I expected he would.

Papering over the cracks...