Summary
P.A.G. van Bergeijk
Waarin een klein land ook echt klein zal zijn : over het behoud van de Nederlandse internationale invloed
P.A.G. van Bergeijk argues that the diplomatic weight of the Netherlands to a large extent rests on its economic power. He focuses on the influence of Dutch economic diplomacy and attempts to quantify its influence in EU institutions over the medium to long term. Deploying population, production and the number of partner countries as a basis for determining future voting rights, EU enlargement is shown to reduce Dutch voting power by one third to a half. The author identifies financial economic areas, such as development aid, banking and international firms where the Netherlands outweighs many G 7 countries, suggesting a re-focusing of Dutch economic diplomacy in general on financial economic themes, thus providing a basis for strengthening Dutch influence in political decision-making.