Three countries, one big headache and infinite possibilities
EU integration is the dream of a Europe without borders. Belgian and German border territories are an integral part of the daily lives of thousands of people in Maastricht. While there are no more passport controls, differences in legislation still complicate the European dream. Martin Unfried and ITEM research and advocate for people in European […]
PRESS RELEASE: The future of sustainable infrastructure is here; and we need a strategic vision
27 September 2023, Brussels | “The green transition in mobility is going well, but it could be a lot better. Until 2040 and 2050, the infrastructure we need to build, will be impossible to achieve on an individual level.” With this conclusion, Turi Fiorito director of the European Federation of Inland Ports (EFIP), underlined how […]
ITEM Reflection: Coalition agreements in border regions from a cross-border perspective
Following the Reflection on party programmes in the run-up to the Provincial Council elections and the ITEM Commentary after the election results, we have now also analysed the coalition agreements of the parties in the seven border provinces. ▶️ Download the Reflection The reflection and commentary concluded that cross-border cooperation played a modest role and […]
Advice to MPs in Parliamentary Assembly Benelux Inter-parliamentary Assembly 2023
“Implementation of cooperation is difficult, because the fact that something is allowed to happen does not mean that it will happen in practice and the question is how to remove barriers.” The second plenary session of the Benelux Parliament took place on June 16 and 17 in the Maastricht County Hall. A delegation of parliamentarians […]
Crossquality: assessing the quality of cross-border cooperation
Crossquality is a project supported by the Interreg-EMR Fund and the European Union. Its aim is to explore the possible qualitative indicators of the Interreg programme. As there are no qualitative indicators for the evaluation of Interreg projects yet, this project is a guideline for the whole European territory. The total budget of the project […]
Little attention paid to cooperation with neighbouring countries in lead-up to elections in border provinces
The topic of cross-border cooperation plays only a modest role in the party manifestos for the upcoming provincial elections. Surprisingly, this is the case even in those provinces bordering a neighbouring country. This is one of the findings of a thematic analysis of 56 party manifestos from seven of the twelve Dutch provinces that share a border […]
Cross-border Assessment 2022: Dossier 3: Energy transition and Energy security
Cross-border Assessment 2022 Dossier 3: Energy transition and Energy security The entire report is available in English and in Dutch. Dossier 3: Energietransitie en energiezekerheid Dossier 3: Energy Transition and Energy Security Martin Unfried The effects of the current legal, spatial, and economic framework on renewable cross-border projects (and crossborder cooperation in times of energy […]
