Netherlands tops EU net contributor table

“The Netherlands still big EU contributor”, headlines De Volkskrant. According to confidential information from the European Commission, the country was one of the union’s top three largest net payers in 2009. The Amsterdam daily notes that if custom charges from the port of Rotterdam paid to EU coffers are taken into account, The Netherlands leads the list, and this despite a one billion euro rebate negociated by PM Balkenende in 2005. Next week, European budgetary talks for 2012-2019 will start. Volkskrant notes that the subject of European contributions in these troubled times of big cut backs is “politically sensitive.”