Netherlands

The Netherlands is a founding EU and NATO member whose economic weight sits FAR above its size, anchored by ASML in Eindhoven, the sole global producer of the extreme ultraviolet lithography machines that every advanced sub-7nm chipmaker needs. That monopoly makes Dutch export licensing decisions a lever in the US-China chip contest that Washington, not The Hague, effectively controls: a US bill, the MATCH Act, would let American regulators decide which chip tools ASML may sell or service in China, a move the Dutch Cabinet called irritating when raised on 24 June 2026 .

The Hague hosts both the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, and Dutch courts require case-by-case review of F-35 component exports to Israel, a constraint rights groups have pressed ministers to tighten . In May 2026 the Netherlands became the first EU state to block a US takeover under its investment-screening law, stopping Kyndryl's purchase of Solvinity, operator of the DigiD identity system, over CLOUD Act exposure , a precedent other EU governments can now draw on.

The country also sits at the centre of a separate dispute with China over Nexperia, a Dutch-based chipmaker owned by China's Wingtech, whose local operations the Netherlands froze under a 1952 goods-availability law; Beijing has since called for the two sides to settle it through consultation rather than reversal .