Belgium–Netherlands relations heritage. Belgium has an embassy in The Hague and consulates in Amsterdam, Maastricht, Nijmegen, Roosendaal, Rotterdam, Terneuzen, Vlissingen and Winsum, while the Netherlands has an embassy in Brussels and consulates in Antwerp, Ghent, Liège and Namur. Both nations are members of the European Union and NATO and, together with Luxembourg, form the Low Countries and the Benelux economic union. Many television programmes are made mutually between the two countries, such as "So You Think You Can Dance" and "Benelux' Next Top Model". The two countries were joint hosts of the UEFA Euro 2000 football tournament and unsuccessfully made a bid
Netherlands ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Spain, all fiefs in the current Netherlands region were united into the Seventeen Provinces, which also included most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and some adjacent land in what is now France and Germany. In 1568, the Eighty Years' War between the Provinces and their Spanish ruler began. The level of ferocity exhibited by both sides can be gleaned from a Dutch chronicler's report: The Duke of Alba ruthlessly attempted to suppress the Protestant movement in the Netherlands. Netherlanders were “burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive” by his “Blood Council” and his