Latest blog articles

We are beginning to hear some good news in these challenging times. The physical distancing measures seem to be working in many countries, including the Netherlands. And the rate of infection is slowing somewhat, even in disease hotspots such as Italy and Spain. In many places, therefore...

With the appearance of COVID-19, a disease caused by a novel coronavirus, we need to search for magic bullets, because there is currently no known treatment for the cause of the disease and the therapies being used are focused on treating the symptoms.

Last Sunday, when we all got the government alert on our mobile phones to stay at least 1.5 metres away from each other, we were reminded  to ensure ‘social distancing’ as a measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19.  We must follow this advice as it is in our common interest. Although, I don’t like...

The coronavirus pandemic is certainly the greatest crisis that most of us here in Europe have been confronted with in our lifetime. It affects the lives of every one of us, our families, loved ones, our colleagues and neighbours. The fact that this is a new virus which leads to a contagious disease...

There seems to be only one topic in the media these days—the new coronavirus and the disease it is causing, COVID-19. In addition to television, the internet and the newspapers, we are being bombarded with opinions and news on social media. Our recommendation is to read those with caution...

Opening speech Opening Academic Year 2019-2020

The purpose of the opening of the academic year is to project optimism and discussing the way ahead. This is more  difficult this year as we have experienced or expecting some dramatic changes to the higher education landscape in the Netherlands. First...

This summer we have witnessed the birth of the “European university”. In June, the European Commission announced the 17 successful bids for this status from consortia of institutions across the continent. Given that UK universities are among the best in the world, you would have expected them to be...

In a little more than one week we saw a series of judgements and a European Commission decision that may again test the limits of the European Union's state aid system in its application to matters of direct taxation.

The coalition agreement of Rutte-III proposed to abolish the dividend tax, but not completely... It states that this Tax will be maintained in situations of abuse, in order to prevent tax evasion. ^{(Dutch only)}

The European Union’s Court of Justice finally rendered its judgement in the famous Banco Santander and Autogrill cases on 21 December 2016. For state aid specialists and tax lawyers this decision was bound to be a landmark case whatever way it would turn out.