Leiden University Student Repository

Frudiger, Joost (2022)

The Netherlands and the negotiation of the Economic and Monetary Union: An ‘actor-centered’ analysis of the Dutch EMU negotiations and Council Presidency of 1991

Master thesis | International Relations (MA)

This thesis contributes to the debate over the EMU negotiations and the Council Presidency's role by conducting an 'actor-centered' analysis of archival sources. It focusses on the research question how far the senior officials went to advance the Dutch position on EMU during the Dutch presidency of the Council?. It is concluded that the Dutch position on EMU was formulated by senior officials from the Ministry of Finance and the DNB. Wim Duisenberg, President of DNB and Treasurer General Cees Maas, entered the Dutch presidency in 1991 by actively promoting the Dutch position on EMU, disregarding the wishes of other member states. This strategy was successful for establishing the ECB but was less successful for banking supervision and the transition to stage three. Maas and Duisenberg desired to continue tenaciously defending the Dutch position, but Finance Minister Kok determined that an agreement was necessary. The Netherlands was eventually forced to concede several points, but...Show moreThis thesis contributes to the debate over the EMU negotiations and the Council Presidency's role by conducting an 'actor-centered' analysis of archival sources. It focusses on the research question how far the senior officials went to advance the Dutch position on EMU during the Dutch presidency of the Council?. It is concluded that the Dutch position on EMU was formulated by senior officials from the Ministry of Finance and the DNB. Wim Duisenberg, President of DNB and Treasurer General Cees Maas, entered the Dutch presidency in 1991 by actively promoting the Dutch position on EMU, disregarding the wishes of other member states. This strategy was successful for establishing the ECB but was less successful for banking supervision and the transition to stage three. Maas and Duisenberg desired to continue tenaciously defending the Dutch position, but Finance Minister Kok determined that an agreement was necessary. The Netherlands was eventually forced to concede several points, but the Treaty was signed in Maastricht. Although the Netherlands had hoped for a different outcome, an EMU with a single currency supervised by a supranational monetary institution would eventually emerge. This has been the Netherlands' desire since 1986.Show less

EMU

EU Treaty negotiations

actor-centered

Council presidency

Author

Frudiger, Joost

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

European Union Studies

Supervisors

Bart van Riel

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en