Dutch enthusiasm for euro fell during stint at EU helm

Date: 15/01/1998

By Chris Johnstone

DUTCH leadership of the EU in the first half of last year holds some sobering lessons for the current UK presidency if it hopes its term at the helm will boost public support for the euro.

A study by the Dutch National Bank has found that the Netherlands' stint in charge of EU business did nothing to reverse growing public opposition to the planned single currency or increase awareness of economic and monetary issues.

The survey found acceptance of the euro fell to 62% in September, down 11 percentage points from a year earlier and down two percentage points from six months before, in a country regarded as one of the most pro-European. Worries about the knock-on effect of the euro on the value of pensions were the biggest concern for one in three Dutch people.

"This shows that the publicity round the European summit in Amsterdam had no appreciable effect - either positive or negative - on public opinion," said the bank.

Business was more positive, with more than two-thirds of all companies in favour of the single currency, including a massive 94% of large firms employing more than 100 people.

The survey's findings come at a time of falling support for the euro across the Union, ironically just as prospects of the currency going ahead with a broadly based membership have firmed up.

An opinion poll published by the European Commission in October registered a fall-off in support for the single currency over the previous year, down from a stable 52% during most of 1996 to 47%.

The Netherlands, Germany and Portugal led the increase in alienation, with only one in three Germans and just over half of the Dutch population supporting the project.

Last week, a poll of already sceptical Finns also showed opposition to the single currency increasing slightly. The December survey found 46% against the euro and 36% in favour, compared with 45% and 36% respectively in October and 38% and 40% in June.

The Dutch survey uncovered other shortcomings in the delivery of the single currency message. Only a quarter of 18 to 25-year-olds knew that the future currency was to be called the euro, and only 2% could also answer two extra questions about the single currency.

Among the rest of the Dutch population, awareness of the January 1999 start date actually fell compared with earlier surveys, with the proportion answering correctly down from 20% to 15%. However, awareness of the name of the currency has grown, with two out of five now able to identify it as the euro.

The survey also has some worrying news for banks tasked with swapping hundreds of tonnes of national coins for the euro. It reveals that the average Dutch family has a jam jar three-quarters full of coins.

Report of a survey of attitudes to the EURO by the Dutch National Bank.