13 March 2023

Little attention paid to cooperation with neighbouring countries in lead-up to elections in border provinces

The topic of cross-border cooperation plays only a modest role in the party manifestos for the upcoming provincial elections. Surprisingly, this is the case even in those provinces bordering a neighbouring country. This is one of the findings of a thematic analysis of 56 party manifestos from seven of the twelve Dutch provinces that share a border with another country. The analysis was conducted by researchers from ITEM, Maastricht University’s transnational expertise centre. The finding is particularly noteworthy given the issues with cross-border cooperation brought to light by the COVID pandemic.