Wednesday 4 September was marked by the official launch event of the Coordination Point Border Obstacles Flanders-Netherlands, which supports governments and organisations in the border region in the search for possible solutions to border barriers. Moderator Anouk Bollen-Vandenboorn (ITEM director), interviewed several involved administrators and researchers about the origin and purpose of the Coordination Point. The event took place at the Antwerp provincial government building.
On behalf of the project group, ITEM researchers Pim Mertens and Martin Unfried, together with Loth van der Auwermeulen of Hasselt University, explained how the Coordination Point works in practice. ‘This initiative is not primarily aimed at citizens’ says Pim Mertens, but they will eventually reap the benefits. ‘Border obstacles are submitted by civil society organisations or public authorities via an interactive form on the Coordination Point website’ explains Martin Unfried. ‘The project group assesses the submission and makes a ‘quick scan’. It is then up to the relevant administrators to assess which questions are put on the agenda and thus further developed. The members of the project group elaborate on the case. They do not do this alone, but involve the relevant stakeholders as much as possible. With the possible approaches they eventually provide, the submitters can continue working on legislation and regulations.
The Coordination Point, a collaboration between the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, the Flemish government, the province of Zeeland, ITEM Maastricht expertise centre and Hasselt University, will operate as a pilot for the next three years. The project partners aim for a strengthened and sustainable cooperation between all layers of government and knowledge institutions in Flanders and the Netherlands, in order to tackle practical border obstacles in the Flemish-Dutch border regions.
Visit the Coordination Point website for more information.
