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New Geert Wilders report claims Dutch ‘NExit’ could save over €500 billion

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Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch ‘Party For Freedom’ (PVV), presented a new document yesterday, which he argued shows the Netherlands should leave the EU and the Euro currency. ‘We must become boss of our own money, our own budget, our own borders, and our own future again,’ he announced at the Hague.

The report, ‘NExit: Assessing the economic impact of the Netherlands leaving the European Union’, which comes to 164 pages, suggests the Dutch follow the ‘Switzerland model’ of loose association with Europe – a model often proposed by British Eurosceptics. Key findings include:

- ‘Reducing or removing direct payments to Brussels should improve Dutch public finances by up to €2.9 billion in 2017, rising to €4.7 billion annually by 2035 (in today’s prices)’ The authors see further savings if domestic spending priorities move away from EU paradigms, adding up to ‘a cumulative €240 billion addition to gross domestic product by 2035’.

- The Dutch economy could be more dynamic freed from most EU regulation – this would ‘reduce the costs of doing business in the Netherlands by a minimum of €20 billion annually by 2035 through ‘renationalising’ regulations’.

- Stopping ‘non-western’ immigration for family re-unification and ‘would initially save Dutch taxpayers €4.0 billion’ p.a. – this saving could be €7.5 by 2035 if only economically useful migrants are admitted.

- Freedom to control monetary and fiscal policy would allow ‘Netherlands-focussed policies [which] may help address the current economic crisis, and should see the economy accumulate €309 billion extra national income by 2035’.

Dutch Finance minister Jeroen Djisselbloem dismissed the findings:

‘The Netherlands is an economic powerhouse in Europe. We earn the bulk of our money in trade with EU countries so the Netherlands has a lot of interest in a single market with easy trade.’ Djisselbloem concluded that leaving would be “very unwise”.

The report’s authors suggest market access is likely, but argue, ‘even [if], for whatever petty reasons, there is no negotiated exit and the Dutch become subject to the full force of European external tariffs, our calculations suggest that the impact on trade will not be that large and over time will still deliver economic benefits.’

Previously the ruling coalition’s Mark Rutte and Frans Timmerman published proposals to end the ‘ever closer union’ EU requirement and to stop EU legislation in over 50 areas.

Last November, Wilders announced an electoral pact with Marie Le Pen, leader of the French Front National. Like UKIP and the Front, Wilders’ Party for Freedom is heading polls leading into May’s European Parliament elections.

 Wilders was banned from entering Britain in 2009 when he was invited to show the controversial anti-Koran film ‘Fitna’ in the House of Lords. It is unclear whether Theresa May would allow him in – her approach to excluding extremists has been contradictory of late.

The study was conducted by London think tank Capital Economics founded by Roger Bootle, Telegraph business commentator and winner of the prestigious £250,000 Wolfson Prize for explaining how the Euro could be dismantled safely.


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