Latest blog articles

  • EC proposal for a Directive COM(2023) 516/4 on a European cross-border association: Citizens will get an instrument to establish associations across the border; Finally!

    Last September, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a Directive on European cross-border associations (COM(2023) 516 final). “The proposal aims to improve …  the conditions for establishing and operating European cross-border associations (ECBAs)”. According to the Commission, the current...

    item
  • McDonaldizing the fight against organised crime?

    Why it is so challenging for Dutch authorities to effectively implement the government policy against serious drug related organized crime? Recently, my colleagues and I from Maastricht University and Erasmus University Rotterdam published an article in the Dutch Tijdschrift over Cultuur en...

    crime
  • How do the Dutch deal with their colonial past?

    The debate on the implications of Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia recently intensified after a report concluded that the Dutch forces had used extreme violence. Reactions to the report reveal that the issue remains controversial and challenging to discuss. The findings in the report do however...

    law_blog_dutch_deal_with_their_colonial_past
  • Cross-border cooperation during a cross-border pandemic

    Not out of possibility, but out of necessity

     

    The last couple of weeks of 2021 were dominated by the cross-border nature of the COVID-19 crisis, and the fight against it. While the Netherlands went into the holiday season under a lockdown, complete closures were largely absent in Germany and...

  • Why do Dutch entrepreneurs just across the border not receive corona benefits?

    During the corona crisis, national measures in the three countries on the Limburg borders are not coordinated equally well. As a result, there is currently a situation in the border region where certain border entrepreneurs fall between the cracks, such as in the Dutch newspaper NRC on April 2nd ("E...

    corvers-grenskannemaastricht-2020.jpg
  • Not crossing the border: recommendation or ban?

    During the Easter weekend there was a lack of clarity about what the rules are at the German-Dutch border. What is actually still allowed when it comes to travelling from the Netherlands to Germany and vice versa? Both the government in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and in the Netherlands have...

    Traffic sign
  • It is really amazing to see the things that students have done together

    When you look at the amount of choice that students have at the Maastricht Science Programme to build their own curriculum, coupled with the advising and the academic resources, the potential is limitless. It is a bit daring to give that high degree of freedom to students. But the students here...

    Placeholder DRUPAL_do NOT touch
  • How do you counter the denial of the Genocide against the Tutsi?

    25 years after the Genocide Against the Tutsi, the denial of this genocide still poses a serious challenge to prevention and reconciliation. How to address this problem was one of the central questions discussed during a recent commemorative conference in the Peace Palace.

    Nature-reserve blog genocide Tutsi