Moves to standardise the names of different types of fuel come into effect in the Netherlands on Friday, but the old names will stay for some time to give drivers time to get used to the change. From Friday the names for petrol, diesel and LPG at petrol stations will be the same throughout Europe as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Macedonia, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey. The aim is to make it easier for people to opt for the right fuel when abroad. In total some some 150,000 stickers have been handed out to 4,000 petrol stations nationwide to alert drivers to the new names. Standard unleaded fuel will now be known as E5 or E10 depending on the ethanol percentage added to the fuel. E10 is due to be the standard by 2020, but motoring organisation ANWB  has warned it is not suitable for cars built before 2000. Car owners can check here if their cars are suited to E10 or whether they have to use an alternative fuel. Petrol stations in Germany, France and Belgium have already switched to E10 and are phasing out E5/Euro95. The Netherlands is lagging behind but will be up to speed before 2020, the ANWB said.  More >

Dutchman Frans Timmermans is about to put his name forward as a lead candidate to replace Jean-Claude Juncker as commission president after winning the backing of socialist parties across the continent, website Politico.eu said on Wednesday. Timmermans, the Netherlands’ European commissioner and vice president of the EU, has won the key support of  German Social Democratic party leader Andrea Nahles, Politico said. 'I am convinced that Frans Timmermans unifies and strengthens our European party family and will lead us to a strong common result in the election for the European Parliament next year,' Nahles wrote in the letter, which Politico has seen. Timmermans, who joined the commission in 2014 and was previously foreign affairs minister in the Netherlands, has been mentioned as the possible PES candidate for several weeks. To be nominated, the candidate must have the backing of their national party and eight other PES member parties. This means Timmermans would have to take the lead role in the PvdA's campaign for next May's European elections. Process The process of electing a new commission president is a complicated one.  European leaders technically propose a candidate for the top job, taking the results of the European elections into account. This means each party in parliament can put forward its own candidate, and the candidate of the European grouping that gets the most votes will be put forward for confirmation by national leaders. The party’s lead candidate will be officially named at the PES congress in December in Lisbon, Politico said. Timmermans, who has been in Brussels for four years, was the most trusted minister in the last cabinet he was a member of. He speaks at least four other languages fluently and garnered praise from around the globe for his emotional speech to the United Nations about the MH17 disaster.   More >

King Willem-Alexander has voiced his concerns and regrets about Britain's impending departure from the European Union ahead of his state visit to the UK later this month. The king told British reporters at his palace in The Hague that Brexit would have an impact on trade between the two nations, the Guardian reported on Monday. He added he had seen no evidence that the British government had had any success in appealing to individual member states over the heads of the EU negotiators. The Netherlands, a founder member of the EU, has been one of the UK's closest allies during its 45-year membership, which will end next March. The UK cabinet's own negotiating position has been hampered by infighting over the 'Chequers plan', drafted at prime minister Theresa May's country estate, which seeks to establish a 'common rulebook' with the EU for the transfer of goods across borders after Brexit. The deal is an attempt to avoid creating a 'hard border' between the UK and the Republic of Ireland, which would contravene the terms of the Good Friday agreement which brought an end to 30 years of terrorism in Northern Ireland. However, some Conservative party backbenchers, including former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, want to ditch the Chequers arrangement in favour of a so-called 'Canada plus' deal which would give Britain more scope to set its own trade tariffs. Neither the Chequers plan nor the 'Canada plus' proposal has been endorsed by the EU. Under Dutch royal family protocols journalists are not allowed to quote the king's words verbatim, but Willem-Alexander was reported to have said he stood squarely behind the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier. A known Anglophile who attended secondary school in Wales, the king also spoke of his love of the British sense of humour, the UK's liberal traditions and its airports. A trained aviator, the king spent 21 years as a guest pilot on KLM Cityhopper flights and named Belfast and Inverness as his favourite UK airports. The state visit by the king and Queen Maxima is the first by a Dutch head of state since 1982 and officially aims to cement relations between the two countries and emphasise their shared values as 'North Sea neighbours'. Arguably the best known Dutch royal visit was in 1688, when Stadhouder William III arrived with an expeditionary force of 35,000 at the invitation of English Protestants to depose the Catholic king James II. William III and Mary II were crowned joint monarchs at Westminster Abbey the following year.  More >

The Netherlands is going to strengthen its embassy network in dozens of European countries with extra diplomats, following Britain's pull-out of the EU, the NRC said on Tuesday. The aim is to keep the Dutch presence in Europe up to scratch following the loss of a 'crucial union partner', the paper said. Speaking at a meeting at the Clingendael Institute, Thijs van der Plas, who heads the government's European unit, said that Budapest, Bucharest, Belgrade, Berlin, Brussels, Dublin, London, Madrid, Paris, Pristina, Sarajevo, Skopje, Tirana and Zagreb 'will all get extra people'. The government's coalition accord included a commitment to spend €40m to strength Dutch diplomatic presence abroad and reopen embassies and consulates. In May 2017, the government advisory board for international affairs AIV said €70m to €80m a year needed to be spent to bring Dutch embassies up to scratch. The AIV report said increasing global dangers make the tasks of embassies wider and more complex but that there have been sharp cost reductions in the Dutch diplomatic corps in recent years. Staff levels have been cut by one-third compared to 20 years ago and interns are being assigned to posts formerly held by diplomats, the AIV said.  More >

Some 39% of British people living in the Netherlands have done nothing yet to regulate their stay post Brexit, according to a survey of over 1,700 British nationals by  DutchNews.nl. The lack of information, confusion about what to do and a wish that Brexit 'would go away' are among the reasons why people have been reluctant to take action, the survey found. A further 31% have checked out the Dutch immigration service website for information, but just 15% have applied for a residency permit. Despite reports of a surge in applications by Brits to become German or French, just 10% have applied for Dutch nationality. Asked why they had not applied for Dutch nationality, 41% said they did not want to give up their British passport. A further 14% said they were worried that becoming Dutch would affect their right to return to Britain for a longer period and 20% had not lived in the Netherlands long enough to qualify. Brexit appeal: could you help fight for British citizen's rights? The Netherlands has pledged to modernise its rules which require people who are not married to a Dutch national to renounce their original nationality, but a draft proposal is not due until next spring. ‘If the Dutch government allowed dual nationality I would have chosen for it years ago,’ said one respondent. ‘Having to give up my British nationality is a huge stumbling block for me.’ Nearly eight in 10 respondents said they were worried or very worried about the impact of Brexit on their lives in the Netherlands. The loss of the freedom to travel across Europe was cited by 77% as a worry and 51% said they were concerned they may have to leave the Netherlands. Over half (54%) said they feared their rights to healthcare and schooling in the Netherlands could be affected while 51% were worried about the loss of pension rights. One third said they feared it may be harder to switch jobs. Theresa May Last Friday, British prime minister Theresa May assured EU citizens living in the UK that they would be allowed to stay in the event of no deal, but she failed to address the situation facing 1.2 million British citizens in the EU, including nearly 90,000 in the Netherlands. The government has said British citizens will be able to 'continue their lives broadly as now' but many details are unclear.  The draft agreement does confirm the right to remain in their country and recognition for their professional qualifications but also removes the right to freedom of movement, which many regard as essential. Information Respondents to the DutchNews.nl survey were very critical of British government’s approach to the position of British nationals living in Europe. Some 88% say the information they have had from the British authorities about their status was poor or very poor. ‘There is no information,’ was the most common comment. ‘No one knows where this is heading so no one can provide any advice with certainty, just vague options,’ one British national said. ‘It’s an appalling mess and shameful disrespect for British people living outside the UK.’ IND The Dutch immigration service has been holding focus group meetings with Brits in the Netherlands and has set up a special Brexit page on its website. It is also planning to launch a newsletter and a social media campaign to inform British nationals about their rights. ‘This survey shows there a great deal of concern and confusion among British nationals in the Netherlands,’ said DutchNews.nl editor Robin Pascoe. ‘The Dutch government should make sure it will be easy for these taxpayers to continue their lives here. The situation is particularly acute for those who have lived in the Netherlands for less than five years.’ Just over 88,000 British nationals live in the Netherlands, including 39,000 children and adults who were born here, according to national statistics agency CBS. Are you worried that your EU residency permit may become invalid after Brexit, do you have a child at university in the UK or have you lived in lots of EU countries with no residency rights in any? You may be able to help a new legal attempt to keep your European citizenship. Find out more You can comment on this article using the comments section below.  More >