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...

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  • 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...

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  • Three countries, three ways of counting?

    Comparing figures on corona infections and mortality can be misleading

    The number of people dying in Belgium from the effects of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) is higher than in neighbouring countries. This high mortality rate makes it seem as if Belgium is not doing as well as its neighbours. The...

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  • 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...

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  • Working from home: not a self-evident matter for frontier workers

    With the prevailing Coronavirus (COVID-19) it is recommended to work from home as much as possible. For frontier workers, however, working from home can be disadvantageous. This is because they then work in another country from one day to the next. International and European rules on the...

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  • Towards the end of German housing (construction) subsidies?

    More than ten years after the European Court of Justice ruled that the German Eigenheimzulage was in breach of European law, the EC also started questioning its successor, the Baukindergeld. ITEM had previously concluded that the Baukindergeld was in breach of European law. We now await the...

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