ABSTRACT
During the early part of the deliberations of the Convention on the Future of Europe, Dutch politics were mostly occupied with domestic issues. One of the dominant issues in 2002 was the rise of Pim Fortuyn and his populist party (LPF) and his assassination. Another crucial issue was the Srebrenica disaster of 1995, which eventually led to the resignation of the government in 2002 and a new call for elections. Only as Dutch political life began to stabilize somewhat after the collapse of the government coalition with the LPF did the work of the Convention become more prominent. The two key preferences of the Dutch government throughout the Convention and the IGC were: the retention of unanimity in the multi-annual financial framework (Article I-54 of draft constitution) and the inclusion of coercive measures concerning the Stability and Growth Pact. These preferences can partly be explained by the neo-liberal stance of the Balkenende cabinet which underlines that the color and composition of a cabinet was crucial in the constitutional debate.
