History of the Netherlands The post-war years saw rapid economic recovery (helped by the American Marshall Plan), followed by the introduction of a welfare state during an era of peace and prosperity. The Netherlands formed a new economic alliance with Belgium and Luxembourg, the Benelux, and all three became founding members of the European Union and NATO. In recent decades, the Dutch economy has been closely linked to that of Germany, and is highly prosperous. The four countries adopted the Euro on 1 January 2002, along with eight other EU member states. The prehistory of the area that is now the Netherlands was largely
So You Think You Can Dance (Belgium and the Netherlands, season 5) So You Think You Can Dance (Belgium and the Netherlands, season 5) The fifth season of So You Think You Can Dance, a Dutch/Belgian televised dance competition, aired in the fall of 2012 on networks RTL5 (Netherlands) and vtm (Belgium). Judges Dan Karaty, Euvgenia Parakhina and Jan Kooijman all returned as permanent members of the judge's panel. Departing judge Marco Gerrits was replaced by choreographer Ish Ait Hamou. An Lemmens and Dennis Weening returned in their roles as co-hosts. On December 9, hip-hop dancer Frederic de Smet was announced as the winner of the competition and awarded a choice of