ITEM BRIEFS 4: European Parliament and the Council support the creation of a European Health Data Space
European Parliament and the Council support the creation of a European Health Data Space: Another step towards a cross-border healthcare system By Susanne Sivonen On December 6th and December 13th respectively, the Council and the European Parliament announced their support for the creation of a European Health Data Space (EHDS). According to […]
ITEM BRIEFS 3: Citizens will get an instrument to establish associations across the border; Finally!
EC proposal for a Directive COM(2023) 516/4 on a European cross-border association: Citizens will get an instrument to establish associations across the border; Finally! By Martin Unfried Last September, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a Directive on European cross-border associations (COM(2023) 516 final). “The proposal aims to improve … the conditions for […]
ITEM BRIEFS 2: Parliamentary elections in the Netherlands: Expectations for border regions and cross-border cooperation
Parliamentary elections in the Netherlands: Expectations for border regions and cross-border cooperation By Pim Mertens Today, 6 December 2023, the new MPs take office, following the Parliamentary elections on 22 November 2023 On 1 December last, the election results were finalised. The PVV emerged as the biggest party from the ballot box (37 […]
ITEM BRIEFS 1: The BENELUX Police Convention
The BENELUX Police Convention: An important step forward in cross-border crime fighting Door Math Noortmann On 1 October last, the new Treaty between Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands on police cooperation finally entered into force (in short BENELUX Police Treaty). This happened more than five years after the treaty was signed […]
COVID-19: Lessons learned and recommendations for the future
By Pim Mertens & Martin Unfried The COVID-19 pandemic greatly impacted every aspect of life. Today, 19 July 2023, the mandate of the ‘Special committee on the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons learned and recommendations for the future’ (COVI) came to an end. In March 2022, the European Parliament agreed on the establishment of this committee. COVI […]
Facilitating cross-border (home) working: an important precondition for the Euroregional labour market and economy
In the ITEM Cross-Border Impact Assessment 2021, the “Impact analysis into the future of working from home for cross-border workers post-COVID-19” investigated the consequences for taxation and social security of working from home by cross-border workers. Hybrid work is the future, also for the region, according to the SER advisory report ‘Hybrid Work’. But working from home […]
Cross-border cooperation during a cross-border pandemic
Not out of possibility, but out of necessity The last couple of weeks of 2021 were dominated by the cross-border nature of the COVID-19 crisis, and the fight against it. While the Netherlands went into the holiday season under a lockdown, complete closures were largely absent in Germany and Belgium. This leads to so-called cross-border […]
Border resident central and border governor more positioned
Last 13 October marked the start of the first joint ITEM/HNP side event during the European Week of Regions and Cities at the House of the Dutch Provinces in Brussels. Multilevel governance in practice was on the agenda and it became so. An animated discussion between different layers of government such as provinces, the Flemish […]
Relieving the border region and reducing travel movements
Previously, ITEM has written about mobility-restricting quarantine measures for the sake of preventing COVID-19 infections. Policies are so designed to minimise cross-country mobility in particular, with the winter sports season in mind. However, ends and means are not always the same, which can come at the expense of day-to-day life in border regions. However, there […]
Work in progress: Belgian social policy under construction
After 493 days of intensive negotiations, Belgium has a new federal government1 The largest amount released for the new policy is invested in social policy, i.e. 2.3 billion euros out of a total of 3.2 billion euros. The federal government’s objective is to protect social security and secure long-term financing. As a result, both the social […]
