When it came to voting rights in the European Parliament and in the Council, the Dutch fought doggedly to get one extra vote in Amsterdam in 1991 and another in Nice in 2000. This may have satisfied nationalist feelings in the Netherlands, as the country is 1.5 times the size of Belgium, but it did not go down well in Belgium.
1991年，荷兰担任欧盟轮值主席的时候，比利时对它提出的意义深远的欧盟条约草案给予了全力的支持。荷兰人提议将欧洲所有的决策事务——经济、外交、司法和内部事务——全部纳入一个单独的框架。事实证明该提案时机尚未成熟，因此在荷兰历史上书写了“黑色星期一”的惨淡篇章，那一天时任荷兰外长的范登布鲁克在欧盟部长理事会面临着几乎被全票否决的窘境，“黑色星期一”也由此得名。而比利时则是在这次勇敢的创举中支持荷兰的一个成员国。