See the Dutch history page on trackandtrain.com

This page is the beginning of an index for socio-economic-historic information about the BeNeLux community and how it fits into the greater scheme of European Integration.

For now, let me simply say that BeNeLux is a formal trade agreement between Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg. This agreement goes back to the 50's or 60's, and was a formalization of reciprocal trade agreements between the three countries.

Now this is being overshadowed by the Unites States of Europe. Oh, that's right! They still call it EU or EC.

EU means European Union, which is an abstraction administered by the EC, the European Community government with seats in Brussels, The Hague, and Luxembourg City. The EC's main governing body is the EP, or European Parliament.

As of this writing in July 99, the EP still is in a shambles after a scandal involving nepotism and cronyism. When the details came out, THE ENTIRE 20+ member group resigned! Now I think an Italian has been appointed to run the new EP, and early on he is being promised the power needed to make changes and root out corruption and favoritism.

That's all for now, I hope to update this soon.

Jim Lohse