Operation Beethoven has paid off. With a financial package of 1.7 billion euros, the outgoing cabinet has managed to keep tech giant ASML in the Netherlands. VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz is very happy with it, she responds in Good Morning Netherlands on NPO 1. “It ensures that tens of thousands of jobs remain here.”
ASML previously threatened to leave our country due to a limited business climate for them. With the commitment from the Dutch government, the unrest seems to have decreased for the company. Only the Eindhoven city council still has to make the decision in June.
“I think this decision is important for the region and for our country,” Yeşilgöz responded. “With the techniques being developed there, we in the Netherlands are leading the world. And of course, this decision ensures that tens of thousands of jobs remain here. That is at ASML itself, but also at the companies around it.”
The VVD member continues: “It shows once once more that we need to invest widely to keep companies here. This means that we have to train people who can work here and build homes in the region so that people want to live and work there.”
Labor migration
The changing position of migrant workers in the Netherlands might be a reason for ASML to leave. There are intense negotiations at the formation table and the parties are not unanimous regarding how to approach this. Yeşilgöz: “I think that as a country, and that is a widely shared wish in politics, we also look much more closely at who we need in the Netherlands. Who needs us and who do we need?”
As far as the VVD is concerned, the various companies and sectors in our country are being examined more closely. “Which companies and sectors do we want to strengthen? And to which companies and sectors do you say: this might be done in a different way?”
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NSC wants to organize labor migration differently, according to European party leader Dirk Gotink. “For us this is a system of inconveniences when it comes to the European internal market. The free movement of people has really caused enormous bottlenecks in a number of places,” he says. Gotink emphasizes that these companies also have a task in terms of integrating migrant workers into the area.
Also read:
Eindhoven gives chip machine manufacturer ASML room for expansion
By: Matthijs Meulblok
