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The Summer is nearing and we all look back on a turbulent and eventful period that lasted for more than a year. The silver lining in this sentence is no doubt in the phrase that we “look back”: the number of COVID-19 infections has been dropping for quite some time now and we are confident that we will soon be able to take up our normal lives again.
ITEM also looks back on an eventful period. Although COVID-19 affected a considerable number of our activities, many also continued thanks to the great commitment of our team and our partners. The pandemic also allowed some extra time to look back on the many things we achieved and to reflect upon the future. ITEM is going through a period of reorientation in which the main goal is to become financially independent within a few years. In this respect the pandemic only seemed to reiterate the big role ITEM can play in providing solutions to cross-border issues. This Newsletter amply shows the many topics ITEM deals with on a daily basis.
Meanwhile, I had the pleasure to take over the role of Prof. Hildegard Schneider in the governance of ITEM. Hildegard cannot be thanked enough for her pioneering role in creating ITEM and in steering it over the last five years together with Prof. Anouk Bollen, the team and many others. Also on behalf of the ITEM team I want to thank Hildegard for her stimulating and key role. She will continue to contribute to some of the research ITEM does after her retirement.
Since I took over on 1 January, I have become much impressed by the work ITEM does with its small and highly dedicated team. And although my main role within ITEM is in the governing body, I do of course have a big interest in cross-border issues myself. This interest stems from three different angles. First, in my own academic work I worked a lot on the topic of harmonisation of laws within the European Union, asking about the potential negative (but also positive) effects of diverse laws and regulations. Second, as Dean of a law faculty that ranks as the most international one in continental Europe in terms of students and staff, cross-border issues are on my agenda as a matter of course. Third, also personally, as a Dutchman working in Maastricht and residing in Liège, I daily live the Euregion myself. For me no doubt the (sometimes unexpected) benefits outweigh the occasional discomfort.
I wish you all much pleasure in reading this ITEM Newsletter. I also express my best wishes for the Summer holidays.
Jan Smits Dean Faculty of Law, Maastricht University
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Jan Smits As of 2021 Prof. Dr. Jan Smits, Dean of the Faculty of Law, has taken over the position of Board supervisor from Prof. Dr. Hildegard Schneider. Professor Hildegard Schneider will continue to be affiliated with and involved in ITEM as a content expert.
Advisory Board
Wilco Tilburgs The Province of Limburg appointed Mr Wilco Tilburgs, Senior Policy Officer, Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, as a new member of the Advisory Board in July 2020.
Otto Fricke In late 2020, Otto Fricke, a member of the German Bundestag, joined the Advisory Board.
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Putting border provinces on the radar
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Since its foundation, ITEM has been committed to the position and role of the border region and cross-border cooperation. Great opportunities can be exploited through cross-border cooperation. A pandemic such as COVID‑19 proves the necessity of paying more attention to this. During the past cabinet term and also at the time of the outgoing cabinet, important progress was made within the GROS programme. ITEM has contributed to this, for instance by including 'border effects' (Leidraad Grenseffecten) as a mandatory quality criterion in the Integral Assessment Framework for new policy.
Permanent attention to the border region continues to be crucial, as Prof. Dr. Anouk Bollen describes in the essay compilation for the Staat van het Bestuur 2020. The border provinces also endorse this. On 17 May 2021, the Dutch provinces sent a joint letter to informateur Mariëtte Hamer, in which they call on the new government to strengthen the focus on Dutch border regions and cross-border cooperation. They call for the continuation and reinforcement of the policy on cross-border cooperation, thereby strengthening not only border regions but the Netherlands as a whole.
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Cross-border Impact Assessment 2021
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Prospective cross-border effects to be studied in 2021, pandemic impact continues
As a result of the input from ITEM stakeholders, the internal discussions and the view of the ITEM impact assessment working group, a selection has been made with respect to the relevant topics for the impact assessment 2021. Thus, the research activities for this years' Cross-Border Impact Assessment have been set in motion. The official publication is expected in November 2021, and will naturally receive attention during the ITEM Annual Conference 2021.
Accordingly, also this year, ITEM will work together on one particular topic with other European cross-border institutes. This will be the EU legislative proposal for a minimum wage directive and its potential implications for border regions.
The research topics of the 2021 Cross-Border Impact Assessment are as follows:
Preliminary Dossier Selection
1. Potential effects of legislation supporting home office/ working at home for cross-border workers at the borders (DE/BE/NL) |
2. The effects of cross-border mismatches in the field of health care (DE, BE, NL) |
3. Potential effects of the current EU proposal for a directive on minimum wages on the border region |
4. Follow-up assessment: effects of second and third wave of the Coronacrisis on the border region (Euregio Meuse-Rhine) |
More information regarding the individual dossiers will appear on our website in due time.
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NOVI (Nationale Omgevingsvisie)
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ITEM has finalised the study on cross-border aspects of future NOVI area of South Limburg. NOVI stands for National Environmental Vision. South Limburg has been granted a NOVI status. Together with Fontys University, ITEM explored cross-border opportunities for South Limburg in the priority areas of the NOVI strategy, such as circular economy, urban development and nature protection. The final aim of the study was to prepare different options for a cross-border strategy for the NOVI South area. It was shown how own policy objectives (as circular economy, energy transition, strengthening urban areas) do correspond to specific priorities of the neighbouring regions in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine.
In particular, the research found that some of the investment priorities in the framework of the transformation of the Rheinische Revier in NRW offer excellent opportunities. In the final report, various recommendations are made with respect to specific projects and where synergies are looking promising. Project leader from ITEM was senior researcher Martin Unfried, from Fontys University of Applied Sciences is lecturer Dr Vincent Pijnenburg, lectureship Cross-border Business Development. ITEM will also be involved in the final formulation the cross-border agenda and its implementation process.e. It was concluded, that there is a very good momentum to search for synergies, since the neighboring regions are currently also developing new strategic programmes and new regional plans.
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Following the b-solutions‘ third call for proposals’, three B-solutions cases as selected by the AEBR and the EU Commission’s DG REGIO have been completed.
B-solutions cases address legal and administrative obstacles that hamper the cross-border cooperation along the EU and EFTA internal land borders.
• B-Solutions project 'Making cross-border internships worthy • B-Solutions project 'Baarle Nassau: Problem analysis and possible solutions concerning access to enclaves' • B-Solutions project 'Cross-border authorizations of tramway personnel'
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Success factors for cross-border real estate transactions: information and patience
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Buying a house abroad, whether it is meant as a primary or secondary residence, or as an investment property to rent out: it is a dream that few can fulfill. With the complex procedures of rules and formalities that apply in the world of real estate transactions, one might wonder: what obstacles might I encounter?
In her dissertation, ITEM PhD-candidate Katja Zimmermann examined the operation and obstacles of various land registration systems.
Her research resulted in well-considered proposals for facilitating real estate transactions in a cross-border context. Her full findings are described in her book 'Facilitating cross-border real estate transactions in Europe: An exploration'.
PhD conferral
On June 2, 2021, after her dissertation defense, Katja Zimmermann
officially completed her doctoral studies and obtained her doctoral degree.
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Invitation PANDEMRIC Symposium '1 year of corona: lessons learned' (online)
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PANDEMRIC Symposium '1 year of corona: lessons learned'
Friday 18 June 2021 | 10:00-11:30hrs | Online
Download the programme (PDF) EN | DE | NL | FR
During the second symposium, four speakers from administration and science will reflect on one year of the corona pandemic and focus on the cooperation between the German partners on the one hand and the Dutch and Belgian partners in the other hand. This symposium focuses mainly on the German perspective. Please note that the main language during the symposium will be German, but text materials will be in English.
For more information and registration please click on the link below
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Invitation Crossquality - Online Kick Off
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Online Kick Off "Crossquality" Friday 25 June 2021 | 12:00 - 13:30hrs
Crossquality - from "cross border" and "quality" - explores the possibilities and challenges for the use of qualitative indicators in the evaluation of the Interreg Programme Euregio Meuse-Rhine.
For more information about the programme and the registration, click on the link below.
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item@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Website | Twitter | LinkedIn | ITEM Cross-border Portal
Address: Kapoenstraat 2, 6211 KW Maastricht, The Netherlands
- Momentarily our team is working from home, hence it is difficult to reach us by phone. You can reach us by email.
- Momenteel werkt ons team vanuit thuis, dus zijn wij niet telefonisch bereikbaar op ons kantoor. Wij zijn wel per e-mail bereikbaar.
- Im Moment arbeitet unser Team von zu Hause aus, so dass wir in unserem Büro nicht telefonisch erreichbar sind. Sie können uns jedoch per E-Mail erreichen.
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ITEM Newsletter Archive
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Publication highlights |
Institute for Transnational and Euregional cooperation and Mobility / ITEM (November 2020). ITEM Cross-border Impact Assessment 2020 |
de Hoon, M., Vink, M., & Schmeets, H. (2021). On the move again? Residential trajectories of refugees after obtaining asylum in the Netherlands. Population Space and Place, 27(2) |
Hovens, D. (2021). Language policy and linguistic landscaping in a contemporary blue-collar workplace in the Dutch–German borderland. Language Policy. |
Hovens, D. (2020). Workplace Learning through Human‐Machine Interaction in a Transient Multilingual Blue‐Collar Work Environment. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 30(3), 369-388. |
Unfried, M., Kortese, L., & Bollen-Vandenboorn, A. H. H. (2020). The bottom-up approach: Experiences with the impact assessment of EU and national legislation in the German, Dutch and Belgian cross-border regions. In E. Medeiros (Ed.), Territorial Impact Assessment, Advances in Spatial Science (pp. 103-121). Springer International Publishing. Advances in Spatial Science Vol. Springer Nature Switzerland AG |
Schneider, H., Büttgen, N., Kortese, L., Tans, R., & Unfried, M. (2020). De weg vrijmaken voor een Euregionaal Kinderchirurgisch Centrum: Toekomstbestendige grensoverschrijdende zorgsamenwerking in de Euregio Maas-Rijn. ITEM. |
More publications from ITEM Staff |
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