BENELUX QUO VADIS ?

In 1958, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg decided to form the BENELUX economic union, which was launched in a more modest format (the London Customs Union) in 1944. When the treaty, which had been previously enlarged, was renewed in 2008 ,this became the BENELUX Union, taking into account the broader scope of the revised original treaty.

In the past BENELUX was seen as a model for the larger European model to come. It worked rather well considering the existing disparities between the three partners. There remained room for common aspiration and shared values and interests. This power nexus could partially neutralize the weight of France or Germany.

Today, BENELUX looks more and more like a thing of the past. The three countries have drifted apart and the constitutional fragmentation of Belgium accelerated this negative trend. Belgium started as a unitary state with its colonies and wealth. Today it is a splintered state which will never recover from its endless reforms. It has lost credibility and financial, economical and military added-value. Meanwhile, the Netherlands have, rightly so, been able to take full advantage of globalization. Its industrial mass is on a world scale and it has chosen to put self-interest ahead of past more continental oriented commitments. Belgium has a network of creative small enterprises but has also become hostage to major French interests which have overtaken large strategic sectors of its economy.

The Netherlands were, with Belgium and Luxemburg, European champions.
Currently, The Hague looks more to London, the USA and Asia than to the EU, where it became a more selective member. The BENELUX consultations prior to EU summits were important insofar as common goals could be actively considered. They become more and more meaningless. Both the BENELUX institutions and political” solidarity reflex” are now in the emergency-room. The Flemish nationalists who counted on the Dutch for support in their linguistic and cultural demands find little sympathy in a country which has opted for English and which has contempt for this Heimat culture-war at its southern borders. Luxemburg follows an equidistant policy but does not hide a certain estrangement from Brussels.

BENELUX survives as a relic from other times. Meanwhile, the frictions between Belgium and the Netherlands cover a large area. The Netherlands consider themselves as the smallest of the “large states” in the EU. The historic “contention” over the access to the Scheldt, the link between Antwerp and the Rhine or the competition between Belgian and Dutch ports is not for the weak at heart.

The BENELUX bureaucracy of this survivor is probably doing something but who knows what? Frankly, I do not see the use of an organization which is no longer representative of any common aspiration and which has lost credibility with the exception of within the ranks of some hard-core defenders who continue to lecture while the church emptied a long time ago. There are too many corpses in the international morgue. Let’s start getting rid of this one.