Norinchukin, a large Japanese bank, will open a branch in Amsterdam in order to maintain uninterrupted access to the European internal market after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, the company officially announced, ANP reports.
In the Netherlands, Norinchukin will mainly focus on project financing. The branch will initially be staffed by a team of 30 people.
As the Dutch economy continues to improve, more permanent jobs will be offered in the Netherlands and contract wages at companies will continue to rise, according to Dutch central bank De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), NU.nl reports.
The number of permanent jobs is already increasing, said Job Swank, director of financial stability at DNB. This year, contract wages are expected to rise by 2.1 percent, after they already rose 1.5 percent in 2018. For 2019 and 2020 the bank expects wage increases of 2.6 and 3 percent respectively.
Almost all parties in the Tweede Kamer want the government to amend Article 10 of a special emergency law for the Brexit. The 'Brexit Collective Law' will be implemented if the United Kingdom breaks with the European Union with no agreements in place. But the parliamentarians feel the law gives too much power to one minister and uncontrollable powers to the government, NOS reports.
British Prime Minister Theresa May is having a working breakfast with Prime Minister Mark Rutte in The Hague on Tuesday morning. May said on Monday that she wants extra promises from her European Union colleagues in the Brexit deal. She will visit many of them, starting with Rutte in the Catshuis on Tuesday, NOS reports.
The Netherlands and United Kingdom have a very good relationship, despite the Brexit plans.
If the United Kingdom leaves the European Union with no agreement in place, it will cost the Netherlands around 2.3 billion euros up to 2023, the Court of Audit said in a new report published on Monday. This involves extra money for Customs and the Dutch food and consumer product safety authority NVWA, as well as higher contributions to the EU, ANP reports.
There are no winners in the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union - both the UK and the EU will suffer under the Brexit, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said. "It will never be as beautiful as it was", he said on Sunday after meeting with his EU colleagues and British Prime Minister Theresa May in Brussels to formally approve the Brexit agreement, the Telegraaf reports.
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima started their two-day state visit to the United Kingdom on Monday. On their first day the Dutch Royals had lunch with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham palace and visited the British parliament, NOS reports.
Shortly before being received at the palace, the Royal couple met with Dutch living in the UK and discussed the expats' concerns about the consequences of the Brexit - the United Kingdom leaving the European Union in March next year.
The police arrested two Amsterdam residents, aged 62 and 69 years, on suspicion of international drug trafficking on Tuesday morning. The two are suspected of a large number of drug transports to Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom, NU.nl reports.
Police officers also searched three homes, including one in Belgium.
Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs does not expect that the European Union and United Kingdom will reach a political agreement on the Brexit on Wednesday. "More time is needed to complete those negotiations successfully. At the same time the risk remains that it will not work", he said on Tuesday evening after after a meeting of Foreign Ministers and EU-Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, NOS reports.
King Willem-Alexander expressed his regret and concern about the United Kingdom's imminent departure from the European Union, speaking to British journalist ahead of his state visit to the U.K. later this month. The Dutch King is particularly concerned about the consequences the Brexit will have for trade between the Netherlands and England, the Guardian and the Independent report.
As the Brexit approaches, the Netherlands is expanding the workforce at embassies in European countries in order to remain strongly present in Europe after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, a spokesperson for institute Clingendael confirmed to NU.nl.
Thijs van der Plas, a top official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, discussed this strategy at a conference on the Brexit at Clingendael on Monday. The Netherlands will strengthen over 10 posts in Europe in preparation for the Brexit.
The European Central Bank is concerned about Dutch bank ING's ability to handle a hard Brexit, according to a report in FD. Sources told the financial newspaper that ING is being pressured to at least partially roll-back a 2016 decision to move dozens of trading desk staffers to their large office in London.
The new concern is that ING will lose access to some financial markets if Brexit continues to progress.
Two Russian spies were arrested in the Netherlands, with the help of Dutch military intelligence service MIVD, this past spring. The two were on their way to Switzerland to hack into a laboratory currently doing investigations that may negatively affect Russia, NRC reports based on its own research.
Unilever has a plan B for compensating British shareholders should the Netherlands not scrap dividend tax as the government plans to do. The British-Dutch company assumes that dividend tax will be a thing of the past in the Netherlands by 2020, but even if it isn't, this plan will allow Unilever to set up its head office in Rotterdam without shareholders losing out, NOS reports.
With only six months to go until the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, it is still unclear what negotiations between the EU and the Brits will yield. It is high time that Dutch businesses who deal with the UK start preparing for a hard Brexit - the UK leaving the EU without any trade agreements in place - the Port of Rotterdam Authority, the Dutch food and consumer product safety authority NVWA and employers' organization VNO-NCW warned, NOS reports.
Japanese electronic company Panasonic is moving its European head office from London to Amsterdam, in order to avoid potential tax issues that may arise after the Brexit - the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union, newspaper Nikkei Asian Review reported on Thursday.
The move is scheduled for October.
A 47-year-old man from Greece was arrested on suspicion of human trafficking in the Zeeland town of Colijnsplaat on Saturday. He was caught smuggling eight people on a sailboat sailing under the Belgian flag, the Koninklijke Marechaussee said on Monday, NU.nl reports.
The eight people were found in the boat's cabin during a check in the port of Colijnsplaat. The Marechaussee - a policing force that works as part of the Dutch military - believe they come from Albania and were being smuggled to England.
The investigation is ongoing.
The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the G7 countries called on Russia to provide clarification on the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. According to the G7, evidence from international investigations that MH17 was shot down by a Russian army BUK missile is "convincing, significant and deeply troubling", RTL Nieuws reports.
A 60-year-old truck driver from the Netherlands was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Great Britain for cocaine trafficking. He was caught smuggling 15 kilograms of the drug into the country early this year. According to the British Prosecutor, the drugs are worth around 1.5 million pounds, or about 1.7 million euros, RTL Nieuws reports.
The Dutch man was arrested at Harwich harbor on January 22nd, shortly after arriving there with his truck. He declared that he was carrying computer parts.
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima will pay a state visit to the United Kingdom, at the invitation of Queen Elizabeth, in the autumn. The visit will take place on October 23rd and 24th. Minster Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs will accompany the Royal couple, government information service Rijksvoorlichtingsdienst announced.
Over the past two days there was an international police action against the propaganda apparatus of terrorist organization Islamic State. Servers belonging to Amaq, a press agency affiliated with the terrorist organization, were seized in the Netherlands, NOS reports.
The Dutch police took a website offline on which DDoS attacks could be purchased for a small amount. The site - Webstresser.org - was the largest provider of such cyber attacks worldwide, the police said in a statement on Wednesday.
So-called booter or stresser sites, like Webstresser.org, are often used to set up DDoS attacks.
The National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) made sure all Dutch government organizations are aware of a warning issued by the American and British security services about Russian state hackers targeting network equipment. The NCSC, which falls under the Ministry of Justice and Security, takes this warning seriously and advises all Dutch organizations to check their network equipment for erroneous configurations, NU.nl reports.
A court in London sentenced Dutch man Aweys S. to eight years in prison for terrorism. He was found guilty of preparing for acts of terrorism and planning to join terrorist organization ISIS in Syria, British newspapers Mail Online and Mirror report.
