NETHERLANDS



Kingdom of the Netherlands

Koninkrijk der Nederlanden

CAPITAL : Constitutional capital: Amsterdam. Seat of government: The Hague ('s Gravenhage; Den Haag)

FLAG : The national flag, standardized in 1937, is a tricolor of red, white, and blue horizontal stripes.

ANTHEM : Wilhelmus van Nassouwen (William of Nassau).

MONETARY UNIT : The guilder was replaced by the euro as official currency as of 2002. The euro is divided into 100 cents. There are coins in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 cents and 1 euro and 2 euros. There are notes of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 euros. As of May 2003, €1 = $1.0977 (or $1 = €0.911).

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES : The metric system is the legal standard.

HOLIDAYS : New Year's Day, 1 January; Queen's Day, 30 April; National Liberation Day, 5 May; Christmas, 25–26 December. Movable religious holidays include Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Monday, Ascension, and Whitmonday.

TIME : 1 PM = noon GMT.


INSURANCE

There are two sectors of the insurance industry in the Netherlands: the companies operating under control laws set down by the EC and supervised by the government, and the companies (mutuals, reinsurance, marine and aviation) not under official supervision. Compulsory third-party motor insurance has been in effect since 1935. In addition, insurance for workers, hunters, nuclear facilities, and pension, are cumpulsory.

DEPENDENCIES

Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands; descriptions of them are given in the volume on the Americas under Netherlands American Dependencies.

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