The Dutch government on Thursday proposed a draft law enabling it to block or annul take-over bids of communications firms by foreign companies "in the name of national security."
A month ahead of general elections, already marred by concerns of foreign hacking into Dutch government websites, the economic affairs ministry said such a law was needed to protect "confidentiality and the public interest."
"The Netherlands benefits from the fact that we have an open economy where the market does its job. So we take more business from abroad than the other way around," said Minister of Economic Affairs Henk Kamp in a statement.