Cross-Border Impact Assessment 2021

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The annual research cycle of the ITEM Cross-Border Impact Assessment experienced some delay due to the crisis containment measures against the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, this year’s edition of the Cross-Border Impact Assessment is almost completed and about to go into print soon. To get an idea about the content the impact assessment team has prepared a short abstract of each dossier.

Dossier 1: Ex-ante study on the cross-border effects of the EU’s proposed Minimum Wage Directive (TEIN study)

Together with partners of the Transfrontier Euro-Institut Network (TEIN), ITEM has studied the potential cross-border effects of the proposed Directive on adequate minimum wages in the European Union. The dossier assesses the possible impact of creating a (binding) common European framework for minimum wages on cross-border regions and their inhabitants. The geographical focus will be on several (cross-)border regions adjacent to Germany – namely those which it shares with Belgium and the Netherlands, the one shared with France, and the one shared with Poland.

Dossier 2: Ex-post analysis into the future of working from home for cross-border workers post-COVID-19

During the COVID-19 crisis, working from home has increasingly become the norm, with homeworking encouraged or even required, including for frontier workers. It will likely continue in some form after the crisis, as both employees and employers alike have recognised its advantages. Political pleas are also rising for making homeworking structural. However, for cross-border workers (partial) homeworking has consequences for the applicable tax and social security regulations due to the physical shift in workplace. Following the temporary suspension of these rules during the crisis, this dossier analyses what effects a formal homeworking policy may have on cross-border workers and their employers in the future.

Dossier 3: The effects of national Corona crisis management on cross-border crisis management in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine

Following up on the 2020-study (in collaboration with TEIN), the impact of the Coronavirus crisis has also been examined as part of this year’s Cross-Border Impact Assessment. This dossier focuses on the impact on Euregional crisis management. More precisely, it assesses the consequences of national crisis management on cooperation in the cross-border region in the realm of the various local and regional crisis teams. The report is based on a study carried out in 2020/2021 in the framework of the INTERREG project Pandemric. ITEM, together with colleagues from Leiden University and the Ockham IPS Institute, investigated the cross-border management of the crisis, in particular with regard to the tension between national governance and Euregional needs.

Dossier 4: Is the EU Patients’ Rights Directive fit for providing well-functioning healthcare in cross-border regions? An ex-post assessment

What amounts to well-functioning healthcare in cross-border regions? Systematic discrepancies between the health systems of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, combined with limited European legislation regarding cross-border healthcare, provide ground for hindrances to develop when it comes to access to healthcare in the border regions. Considering the extent and severity of hindrances between these three countries, this dossier analyses if the EU Patients’ Rights Directive is fit for this purpose.


Find out more details about ITEM's annual Cross-Border Impact Assessment