Early adopters

CALL them the hipsters of European neurosis. Take any of the anxieties that have lately beset Europe’s politics and you find the Dutch got there first. Concerns over fiscal waywardness in the euro zone? They were fuming at German and French profligacy over a decade ago. Asylum and immigration? The Dutch were agonising over multiculturalism while Angela Merkel was still plotting her ascent to the Bundeskanzleramt. The threat from anti-European populists? The Dutch have seen several come and go.

Such worries have now gone mainstream across Europe. So it is an interesting time for the Netherlands to take over the rotating six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union (the forum for national ministers). As one of the six founding EU members the Dutch are practised at steering the machinery, even if the presidency is not the force it once was (see article). But they are taking charge at a tricky moment. The EU was supposed to be a “fair-weather union”, says Bert Koenders, the foreign minister. Now it must prove itself in a storm.