It was an inspiring morning on an early December day at the Eiffel Building in Maastricht. A spacious and pleasant environment, framed by an engaging discussion format, invited participants to find each other, promote their initiatives or simply brainstorm about community and cooperation in the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion.
On 6 December 2019, Studio Europa Maastricht gathered various local and regional players involved in European and Euroregional cooperation. Workshop Europe or Workplace Europe, as it was called, was to be a real “work shop” – and proved to be a Euroregional networking event par excellence!
The open format of the event was refreshing, as people were not bound by deadlines or a particular programme structure. A key inspirational element: the agenda was set by participants’ own ad hoc suggestions after the first round of playful introductions.
Sharing ideas for Euroregional cooperation
The most valuable thing about this meeting was the networking aspect. Euroregional cooperation can benefit from this kind of event, as it provides an opportunity to quickly share ideas and learn more about potential partners. To like-minded organisations, I was able to present what my organisation ITEM stands for and how it is working on the “European idea” and improving Euroregional cohesion. Who knows what will come of it!
A link to one of ITEM’s ongoing projects could already be identified: youRegion.eu. The local initiative to launch a Euroregional job market (UM Team Student and City, MATCH) easily coincides with the project’s twin goals of promoting a 360° cross-border labour market as a breeding ground for a Euroregional welcome culture. As an (EU) INTERREG-funded project, the aim is to make cross-border cooperation between different partners on job placement and ‘welcome services’ a daily and structural reality. The connection with the Euregional student communities, the region’s pool of young talent, would be only logical. The idea is already planted and will definitely be followed up!
Cross-fertilisation in the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion
Based on the initial brainstorming of common plans and objectives, discussions were organised into individual break-out sessions with participation by choice. A total of 22 (!) proposals were collected. But then there were the “butterflies” … and the “bumblebees” … They were able to chat pleasantly in one-on-one conversations along the sidelines or exchange their opinions by hopping from session to session, from topic to topic. One drawback (perhaps from too much butterflying?) was that I did not manage to attend all the interesting sessions (e.g. Involve Liège) or participate in the fruitful group discussions that might have been desired based on personal interest.
This Workplace Europe meeting was to provide a working platform to learn from each other, exchange best practices and find common solutions or cooperation partners to make Europe in general – and the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion in particular – a better place. Participants ranged from formal organisations, such as various UM departments, charities, NGOs, citizens’ movements to cross-border initiatives. The creative and engaging working method was “Open Space Technology” and was moderated by Melih Özkardes, programme maker at Studio Europa Maastricht. Accordingly, the registered organisations enjoyed a professional, comprehensive pre- and post-event briefing with relevant event documentation – i.e. stimulating them to find each other, get in touch with each other and stay in touch – thus providing the optimal breeding ground for (new) constructive networking relationships and project collaborations.
Hopefully there will be a next time to grow those ideas further! Possibly in May 2020?
By Nina Büttgen
Post-doc Researcher @ ITEM
Institute for Transnational and Euregional cross border cooperation and Mobility