NATO should play an active role in the European Union’s energy policy, foreign affairs minister Maxime Verhagen and economic affairs minister Maria van der Hoeven said in an essay in Saturday’s Financieele Dagblad.

The ministers say that ensuring energy provision should be a ‘strategic aim’ of the EU’s foreign and security policies. NATO could be useful in ‘energy safety and protecting transport routes and critical infrastructure’, the ministers wrote.
Dutch and EU foreign policy will be increasingly concerned with the demand for energy, the ministers say. Energy is no longer a matter of economics but of strategic importance. ‘The growth in population and arrival of fast-growing economies has led to an explosive growth in energy consumption and the end is not yet in sight,’ the ministers wrote.
In order to strengthen the Netherlands’ role as an energy hub, the ministers said they would be talking to oil and gas producing countries about good management and transparency in order to develop a better investment climate.