Kok serves sound bites with a smile

Date: 16/01/1997

Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok is specialising in sound bites with a chuckle as he gets into the swing of the Netherlands' EU presidency.

The other day, a journalist asked him whether the forthcoming British general election was making things a bit tricky for the Intergovernmental Conference negotiations.

“I would rather have an election in Britain than in Holland,” quipped Kok. Then, when discussing the single currency with a group of Brussels journalists visiting The Hague, he opined: “I am confident that the euro of tomorrow will be as strong as the guilder of today and that means stronger than the deutschmark.”

A fellow Dutch minister was heard to mutter “stick to the text”, an entreaty that Kok, already being dubbed the most handsome president-in-office since JFK, is unlikely to respond to.

A steady Dutch hand at the helm has evidently pleased Commission President Jacques Santer. After discussions in The Hague, he said he was hopeful of increased progress in the construction of Europe now that there were two presidencies this year the Netherlands', then Luxembourg's which were “on the same wavelength” as the Commission itself.