Dutch eurosceptic Wilders says quitting EU would push up growth
By Thomas Escritt
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Eurosceptic politician Geert Wilders said on Thursday the Dutch economy, just emerging from recession, would see substantially higher growth if the Netherlands quit the European Union.
The opposition politician has allied with some other eurosceptic and populist parties in Europe, hoping to capitalise on widespread disenchantment over the euro zone crisis.
Wilders, whose party is topping opinion polls in the run-up to European elections in May - often used as a protest vote against sitting governments - has long called for the Netherlands to quit the euro and claw back power from Brussels.
He is unlikely to see his proposals implemented given the broadly pro-European stance of the current government, and the fact his party slumped at the last parliamentary election, in 2012, which he tried to turn into a referendum on Europe.
Nonetheless, his comments feed into the mood of eurosceptic parties across northern Europe seeking to win votes and embarrass governments that have pushed austerity to prop up their own economies and bail out heavily indebted southern neighbours who they blame for the downturn.
"We must become boss of our own money, our own budget, our own borders, and our own future again," Wilders told a news conference in The Hague, pointing to non-EU member Switzerland as an example.
Citing a report commissioned by his party, he said the Dutch economy would be 10 percent bigger in 10 years' time if the Netherlands were to leave the EU next year than if it stayed.
The average annual benefit would be nearly 10,000 euros per household over the next two decades, he said.
The report by the research consultancy Capital Economics, called "Nexit: Assessing the economic impact of the Netherlands leaving the European Union", said quitting would lead to higher growth by bringing control of monetary policy back to the Dutch central bank and allowing individual trade deals.
"This report proves not just that Nexit, a Dutch exit from the EU, is more positive than stumbling on in the EU, but it also offers the Netherlands an exit from the crisis," Wilders said.
ECONOMIC POWERHOUSE
Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who also heads the Eurogroup, was quick to shoot down Wilders' proposals.
"The Netherlands is an economic powerhouse in Europe. We earn the bulk of our money in trade with EU countries so the Netherlands has a lot of interest in a single market with easy trade," Dijsselbloem told local media, adding that quitting the EU would be "very unwise".
While the Netherlands was a founding member of the European Union, signing up to its earliest predecessor in 1951, the last decade has seen a eurosceptic mood take hold, exacerbated by persistent sluggish economic performance.
While the government is pro-Europe, Prime Minister Mark Rutte last June called for a "more modest, more sober but more effective" European Union, with the emphasis on national sovereignty and far less interference from Brussels.
Some 45 percent of the Dutch are in favour of European Union membership, with 37 percent opposed, according to an opinion poll by Maurice de Hond published on January 20.
Dropping the euro in favour of the national currency would only lead to temporary volatility, Mark Pragnell of Capital Economics said, adding that the Netherlands would not lose the EU as a trade market, given the importance of the Dutch port of Rotterdam, Europe's largest.
Last year, Capital Economics published a report commissioned by Simon Wolfson, a British eurosceptic businessman, exploring ways in which a country could quit the euro.
Wilders, who rose to fame because of his anti-immigration and anti-Islam views, tried to turn the last election into a referendum on Europe, saying he would pull the country out of the bloc and reintroduce the Dutch guilder. He won 15 seats, almost halving his parliamentary representation.
But he has since bounced back in the polls and his Freedom Party would win 29 seats in the 150-seat parliament if an election were held now, according to the latest De Hond poll, while the Liberals and Labour, the two coalition parties, would win 19 and 14 seats respectively.
The next parliamentary election is due in 2016.
(Editing by Sara Webb and Alison Williams)
