{"id":5020,"date":"2026-11-12T18:23:18","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T16:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/schakelpunt-reaches-a-milestone-signing-of-the-benelux-decision-on-cross-border-ambulance-care\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T18:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T16:36:14","slug":"schakelpunt-reaches-a-milestone-signing-of-the-benelux-decision-on-cross-border-ambulance-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/schakelpunt-reaches-a-milestone-signing-of-the-benelux-decision-on-cross-border-ambulance-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Schakelpunt reaches a milestone: Signing of the Benelux Decision on cross-border ambulance care"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br\/>During the Benelux Summit in Maastricht on 10 November 2026, the Prime Ministers of Belgium and the Netherlands signed the amended Benelux Decision on cross-border ambulance care. Under this arrangement, ambulances can transport patients across the border to hospitals in either Belgium or the Netherlands in emergency situations. This marks an important step towards resolving a cross-border obstacle that has persisted for more than twenty years in the Belgian-Dutch border region.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This follows a recommendation by the Schakelpunt, which examined the issue and proposed an amended Benelux Decision as a solution. Researcher Susanne Sivonen, who conducted the analysis on behalf of ITEM within the Schakelpunt, comments:<br\/>\u201cThis is truly great news for emergency healthcare in the border region. It is not only of great importance for cooperation between ambulance services, but above all for patients. Thanks to the joint efforts of several stakeholders, including the municipality of Woensdrecht, AZ Klina Hospital, the ambulance services, the relevant Ministries of Health and the Benelux Union, the solution was made possible.\u201d<br\/><br\/>The signing demonstrates how the legal instruments of the Benelux Union can contribute to resolving cross-border obstacles. This theme was also central to a panel discussion featuring ITEM Director Martin Unfried, Secretary-General of the Benelux Union Ariadne Petridis, and Vice-President of the Benelux Parliament Yves Evrard. The discussion also addressed other areas in which the Benelux toolbox could offer solutions, such as the recognition of qualifications, police cooperation and drones. The Prime Ministers also reaffirmed their ambition to further strengthen the Benelux as a frontrunner in European cooperation.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.schakelpunt.eu\/nieuws\/oplossing-van-het-schakelpunt-bereikt-mijlpaal-ondertekening-benelux-beschikking-voor-grensoverschrijdende-ambulancezorg\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.schakelpunt.eu\/nieuws\/oplossing-van-het-schakelpunt-bereikt-mijlpaal-ondertekening-benelux-beschikking-voor-grensoverschrijdende-ambulancezorg\/\">Read the news article of the Schakelpunt here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/1794347562993-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5014\" srcset=\"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/1794347562993-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/1794347562993-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/1794347562993-767x511.jpg 767w, https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/1794347562993.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/1794412265615-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5012\" srcset=\"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/1794412265615-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/1794412265615-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/1794412265615-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/1794412265615.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Photo \u00a9 Rijksvoorlichtingsdienst<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During the Benelux Summit in Maastricht on 10 November 2026, the Prime Ministers of Belgium and the Netherlands signed the amended Benelux Decision on cross-border ambulance care. Under this arrangement, ambulances can transport patients across the border to hospitals in either Belgium or the Netherlands in emergency situations. This marks an important step towards resolving [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":5017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"thema":[71],"class_list":["post-5020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","thema-healthcare-and-welfare"],"acf":[],"permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5020"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5021,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5020\/revisions\/5021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5020"},{"taxonomy":"thema","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossborderitem.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thema?post=5020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}