Dutch would be "£8,000 per household" better off outside the EU, finds study
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/e...-the-euro.html
Dutch would be 'better off' if they left the EU
There are big economic benefits for the Dutch in leaving the EU, finds a major study
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The independent study was commissioned by Geert Wilders, the leader of the mainstream Dutch anti-EU Freedom Party, to assess the cost for the Netherlands of leaving the EU as he leads national opinion polls in the run up to European elections
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Originally Posted by Telegraph
The average Dutch household could be better off by over £8,000 a year and national income will grow by over £1 trillion if the Netherlands leaves the euro and the EU, according to a new study.
The study by the respected British Capital Economics research consultancy into "Nexit" - as a potential exit by the Netherlands has been termed - finds significant benefits over the next two decades if the country swaps its EU membership for a status similar to Switzerland or Norway.
"Any decision to leave the EU is first and foremost a social, cultural and political one. It must revolve around issues of national sovereignty, citizenship and freedom of determination," the report found.
"However, there are also good reasons to believe that a nation, untied from the bureaucracy of Brussels and able to make decisions for itself rather than have imposed one-size-fits-all policies, will benefit economically too."
The research has been seized upon by Eurosceptics to counter what they see as alarmist warnings from prominent business leaders and mainstream politicians of an economic meltdown if Britain left the EU.
"This report is significant because it has been produced by a credible City research group. It cannot be easily dismissed," said Douglas Carswell, the Conservative MP for Clacton.
"It shows we are no longer alone. It is not just us Brits who have come to realise that European integration is fundamentally flawed. We're very like the Dutch, a small country that has prospered by trading globally. Think what countries like ours could be in a different type of Europe."
While acknowledging risks to leaving the EU, Capital Economics concludes that the Netherlands, a AAA rated creditor country in the eurozone, is better out of the EU because the threat posed to its long-term wealth by the structural problems of the European single currency.
"There are, of course, risks to leaving the union - and these need to be recognised and addressed by anyone considering Nexit," the report said.
"But there are also significant risks to staying in a bloc with a fundamentally flawed currency. In this instance, our analysis shows that the Netherlands would be better off taking control of its own destiny, rather than sticking with the 'devil it knows'."
The report concludes that Dutch national income could increase by as much as €1,500 billion (£1.3 trillion) by 2035 bringing new wealth equivalent to between €9,800 (£8,134) per household each year.
Even if the Netherlands was unable to win a deal the same Switzerland or Norway, which are in the European single market but not members of the EU,"the economy would be better off out of the union than in", he report found.
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Future Dutch PM?: Geert Wilders with France's Marine Le Pen. Both Le Penn and Wilders are leading in their national polls for the European Elections in May, with Geert Wilders PVV party also leading the national polls for the next Dutch General Election.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Telegraph
The independent study was commissioned by Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch anti-EU Freedom Party, to assess the cost for the Netherlands of leaving the Union as he leads national opinion polls in the run up to European elections this spring.
"Contrary to what the scaremongers claim, our economy would not grind to a halt. We would earn billions more than right now," he said.
"In the beginning there is a transition period, for example, to switch from the euro to the guilder. But after that time, the economy will grow harder faster than now, ten per cent extra in 2024 and 13pc in 2035."
Dutch opinion polling by Maurice de Hond has found that a majority of 55 per cent support leaving the EU if it can be shown to lead to if this additional economic growth and job creation.
In 2012, Capital Economics won the prestigious Wolfson Prize for a study into how to manage an orderly break-up of the euro, at the height of the European debt crisis.
The 164-page study plays down the costs and turbulence involved in leaving the euro. "There are economic costs to leaving the EU, particularly in relation to replacing the single currency with a national one. But these costs are modest and manageable," it said.
Much of the economic growth forecast by leaving the EU, in a country dominated by the port of Rotterdam, comes by growing "exports to non-European markets faster by negotiating and trading with high growth emerging economies without being tied to a common [EU] trade policy".
Currently many EU free trade deals are on hold or mired in internal disagreement between free trade countries such as Britain and Netherlands and a more protectionist Latin bloc led by France and Italy.
The report on "Nexit", an expression merging the abbreviation for Netherlands and the word exit, also finds economic benefits to being outside the EU, including a reduction in business costs by "a minimum of €20 billion annually by 2035 through ﾑrenationalisingﾒ regulations in areas currently in the jurisdiction of Brussels institutions".
Overall the report concludes that the Dutch would be able to manage their economy "more effectively by having the freedom to set monetary and fiscal policy to fit Dutch national conditions, and not the euro-zone as a whole".
The study also finds"a reduction in public expenditure by a minimum of €7.5 billion annually by 2035 by not being bound by EU free movement laws and "through revising immigration policy to focus more tightly on admitting only those who make an economic contribution".
The study contradicts an official Dutch study previous studies on the benefits of EU membership, which calculated it was worth €2,000 Netherlands per person every year.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister and chairman of eurozone meetings, attacked the idea of Nexit as "very unwise" and defended the EU's single currency.
"I'm going to read it, but I know one thing for sure: Netherlands is an economic powerhouse in Europe. We earn the bulk of our wealth in trade with EU countries so Netherlands has lots of interest in an internal market with easy trade," he said.
"There is also the single currency. This is very strong at present and the state of the eurozone looks a lot better than a few years ago. There is no reason to take us into new adventures. I would be very against."
The momentum across Europe is now building that we ought to have a Europe of independent nation states that trade with one another, co-operate with one another but which are not governed centrally by the unelected European Commission. What we need is a Europe of Norway's, Switzerland's and Iceland's which are politically independent but which have no problem trading with EU members on the continent. The findings of this report conclude what should be the bleeding obvious: that not only do we not need to be in the EU to be economically better off, but being outside the EU would actually make us much better off.
The pressure is building across Europe; mainly in Britain, the Netherlands, France and Finland. The European Elections this May should be very interesting indeed.
Thoughts?
