The dutch are talking to 250 companies about brexit
Economicaffairsministrysaidarecruitmentprogrammehadbrought42companies or branch offices and 1,923 jobs from Britain to the Netherlands in 2018.
The Dutch government said on Saturday it was in talks with 250 companies about moving operations to the Netherlands from Britain ahead of Britain’s exit from the European Union, scheduled for March 29.
The Economic Affairs Ministry said in a report that a recruitment programme had brought 42 companies or branch offices and 1,923 jobs from Britain to the Netherlands in 2018.
The report named Japanese investment bank Norinchukin, media company TVT Media, financial services providers Marketaxess and Azimo, and maritime insurer UK P&I Club among movers.
“In 2019, several companies, including Discovery and Bloomberg have already announced their intention to invest in the Netherlands because of Brexit,” the ministry said.
“Additionally, the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency is talking with more than 250 foreign companies considering setting up operations in the Netherlands following Brexit.”
It said most were British, but some were American or Asian firms reconsidering their European branch structures.
“These include companies in the financial sector, media and advertising, life sciences & health and logistics,” it said. Companies that have moved some operations to the Netherlands or signalled an intention to do so also include Chicago’s Cboe Global Markets, the London Stock Exchange Group, Tradeweb, Panasonic and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
The European Medicines Agency, which is already operating from a temporary space in Amsterdam, is moving 900 staff to the Netherlands from London by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on Friday said he believed “a deal can be done” to avoid a disorderly British exit from the EU, after a meeting with a key ally of British Prime Minister Theresa May that he said went very well.
Varadkar later hosted May for a formal dinner in Dublin that an Irish official described as “very warm” - in contrast to a relatively chilly reception given to May in Brussels earlier this week.
Varadkar said talks with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party in Belfast in the afternoon showed there was “more that unites us than divides us when it comes to Brexit,” unusually conciliatory language in what has often been an acrimonious relationship.
The DUP, which props up May’s government, has been one of the fiercest critics of Britain’s exit deal with the European Union, which parliament in London has rejected and more particularly the contentious “backstop” championed by Varadkar.
The provision is an insurance policy meant to keep the border between Ireland, a euro zone member, and the British-run province of Northern Ireland open under any and all circumstances. The DUP says its terms are unacceptable as they would undermine trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. The EU has said it will not remove the provision or re-open the legally binding Brexit deal agreed with Britain over two years, but has said it is ready to rework the political declaration that accompanies it.
After the meeting, DUP leader Arlene Foster said she had a “good engagement” with Varadkar and that the DUP wanted “to be as helpful as we can to try and get a deal that works for the United Kingdom and also works for the European Union.”