On 9 May 1950, France launched a revolutionary plan for supranational cooperation in Western Europe. The Netherlands was taken completely by surprise. In the decades that followed, European integration moved forward at an unprecedented pace, taking the Netherlands with it. Geography and the post-war world seemed to leave the country no other choice. European integration forced - and is still forcing - the Netherlands on a far-reaching 'journey to the continent'.For the Netherlands, European integration represents a difficult journey to a new old world that often seems far off. How has that journey progressed so far? Why did the Netherlands join the common European market and currency from the very beginning? Was this course inevitable? And where has it brought the country?Using new, international source material, The Netherlands and European Integration digs deeply into the history of the Netherlands in Europe - a subject that is today more topical than ever.
- Cover
- Contents
- Preface
- Prologue: Dinner in Laeken (1989)
- Kohl’s great leap forward
- The surgeons of French realpolitik
- Exploiting Franco-German reconciliation
- The Netherlands between the Anglo-Saxons and the Teutons
- Journey to the continent
- 1. American concepts: Building Europe (1947-1949)
- 2. Magical realism (1949-1951)
- Putting the country’s mental stability to the test
- The Germany memorandum
- Atlantis and bloc formation within the Western bloc
- The Netherlands taken by surprise
- Manufacturing a tranquillizer
- 3. The Beyen Plan (1951-1954)
- The letter from ‘the Ten’
- Red versus Catholic
- From Europe
- A game for insiders
- 4. Around Cologne cathedral (1954-1957)
- Adenauer’s Abendland
- Coordination through Europe’s back channels
- With the Benelux to Sicily
- Rebirth as a market
- The latest trend
- The Treaties of Rome
- 5. A Europe of conspiracies (1957-1968)
- Faust in Paris
- Rhetoric and intrigue
- Market expansion by a gentleman farmer
- Silence is golden
- 6. At home in the Basel biotope (1968-1974)
- American dreams
- An alternative loan circuit
- Holtrop’s logic
- Masters of the interim stage
- 7. Sturm und Drang (1974-1982)
- Late conversion
- The monetary trilemma
- Failure for Duisenberg
- The stick of free movement of capital
- 8. The hand of French-German friendship (1982-1989)
- A community united by blood
- Celebrating success and earning money
- Work in progress
- The Delors Report
- 9. After Strasbourg: A different party than expected (1989-1992)
- Piet’s work of art
- The consequences
- 10. European realities: Defining Europe after the Cold War
- The direction of integration
- The 1990s and after
- The tragedy of Maastricht and Amsterdam
- A rediscovery
- Epilogue: The call of Calypso
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Sources and references
- Index
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
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