'Ontgrenzer' Martin Unfried employed by ITEM

Martin Unfried (1966) has been working in the Netherlands since 1997 with the European Institute for Public Administration (EIPA). The last couple of years mr Unfried also started working as ‘ontgrenzer’ for the province of Limburg and the Dutch ministry of internal affairs. In 2013 he wrote the report “Van stilstand naar Verandering. Praktische Oplossingen voor verbetering van de arbeidsmobiliteit in de grensregio”. Recommendations from this report are today part of policy recommendations from several governmental institutions.

As ‘ontgrenzer’ Martin is involved in the realisation of among other things ‘Grensinformatiepunt Maastricht (GIP)’ for support to among others cross border workers in the Netherlands-Flanders that in spring 2016, following the example of GIP Aachen-Eurode, will start. Martin is also playing a crucial role in the realisation of cross border employment service teams. Within ITEM Martin will be leading several working groups among others ITEM’s annual cross border impact assessment and the theoretical support of the cross border employment service teams.

During the first couple of months Martin will be leading and guiding the study assigned to ITEM by the Meuse-Rhine Euregion; Comparability of the processes related to cross-border placement services in the Meuse-Rhine Euregion. What are the definitions that are used in different aspects of the work carried out by placement services? How do we define whether cross-border placement services are successful? What are the criteria that are applied when making such an assessment? What initiatives do the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany take to effectuate successful placement services for their citizens? What are the available best-practices and data concerning frontier workers? These are the core questions of ITEM’s new cooperation project with the EMR and EURES partners that is scheduled to start at the beginning of 2016 and that will be carried out with Martin as its project leader.