Another week, another instalment in the on-going struggle to solve the euro crisis. But while Greece adjusts to the idea of a new prime minister and Brussels looks anxiously to the rise and fall of its financial markets, the Netherlands is taking a hard look back to the financial crisis of 2008.

The current economic crisis is not yet as severe as that of 2008 – but there are fears it could eventually become even worse. One aspect of the situation that is unchanged is the lack of democratic control and accountability of those responsible for solving the crisis.

The Dutch parliament is about to exert its democratic control of the government’s actions back in 2008 with an enquiry getting underway today. The parliamentary committee of inquiry has been given access to all the relevant documentation, including secret files. Over the next five weeks, senior government and banking officials will be heard, including former Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and his Finance Minister Wouter Bos. All witnesses will be questioned under oath.

Large sums
Interest in the inquiry has been heightened because of its relevance to the current euro crisis. The Netherlands has committed more than four and a half billion euro’s in loans for Greece, and is being asked to guarantee 98 billion euro’s for the European Financial Stability Facility Fund, the fund set up to restore confidence in the common currency.

With the prospect of such large amounts of money changing hands, Dutch MPs would like to be able to keep a close eye on how it’s being spent. That’s difficult, if not near impossible, on a European level – but the enquiry is at least a chance for MP’s to pin down what was done with the money allocated to combat the last crisis.

Steps in 2008
The de Wit inquiry is named after its chairman, Socialist Party MP Jan de Wit. It is charged with looking into measures taken by the Dutch government in 2008 to help shore up the Dutch banking sector. Those measures were unprecedented and included an almost 17 billion euro takeover of ABN Amro bank and part of Fortis Bank. A 200 billion euro fund was created to guarantee bank loans - 50 billion of which was actually used. Bad mortgages held by the ING bank were guaranteed to the tune of 22 billion euro’s and another 20 billion euro’s was made available to ING and two other banks.

Of course these amounts are not nearly as high as the sums being talked about today to help save the euro. Control over the euro rests largely in the hands of officials at the European Central Bank in Brussels and that institution is governed by the inflexible language of European treaties. Democratic control proved hard enough in the case of the 2008 financial crisis but it’s going to be much harder when it comes to measures to solve the euro crisis.

EU accountable?
Both the British parliament and the US Congress have held their own inquiries into the 2008 financial crisis. In both cases, elected representatives had the opportunity to hold economic and financial officials accountable, regardless of the outcome of the inquiries. The current Dutch inquiry concerns measures taken by the government, witnesses are being heard under oath and are therefore subject to prosecution if they are found to be lying. Although Mr de Jager is the only minister still in office (he was deputy minister under Minister Bos), current ministers can be held accountable for the actions of their predecessors.

Regardless of what the future has in store for the euro, it is hard to imagine Brussels carrying out a similar inquiry to hold European officials accountable to democratically elected representatives.