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Culture and Education

The Benelux leaflet «active and timely», published in September 2009, resumes all the actions and meetings realised by the different Benelux organizations these last years.

The educational field, on which I will mainly focus, seems to be concentrated on the amelioration of the transnational ways of doing business.

Culture is both connected and close to the business field; I think it is an important aspect.

Improving the different management styles through the Benelux countries and its main partners, France and Germany, has to be an objective for all the five countries.

Knowing and understanding the different management styles (which includes a better knowledge of the cultural and ethical aspects of each country) can be done through an exchange of graduated students in the management- and business fields.

The education section in the Benelux leaflet explains how universities in different parts of the Benelux have been working together, exchanging ideas and thoughts through the ION! International ONdernemen, a transnational entrepreneurial education programme on the bachelor (polytechnical) level. The programme is based on a productive cooperation between Antwerp and Breda, mainly working on the differences between the Dutch and Flemish ways of doing business.

To apply this kind of exchange to the level of Europe with a four-day exchange of students from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg is an ambitious first step towards a better understanding of the different ways of managing business in Europe. Once again, the Benelux could stand up as a pioneer, especially in the field of multicultural management.

Such an exchange has to be as complete as it can be, meaning:

• round table conferences with graduated students and professionals from all the five countries to :

• • set up a programme of amelioration of the management field
  • find answers to current obstacles in this field
  • understand, through the explanation of each student from each country, the ethical and cultural aspects of work in each country

• visits of different pioneering firms in the field of management

• conferences of psychologists, managers and culture professionals based on the idea of improvement of multicultural management

The main idea is that, at the end of the exchange, all graduated students from each country write their points of view and its evolution, thanks to the exchange programme, showing that they understand better the implication and respect of each other’s culture, in order to work all together for more satisfying working conditions in the management area.

Author: Julie Gamberoni

Species protection

The Benelux Convention on Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection has concrete applications like the Border Park De Zoom-Kalmthoutse Heide (since 8 years today). This ecological network of 4000 hectares in the Belgium North province of Antwerp and the Dutch province of North Brabant is managed by a cross border policy in order to optimize the development of the area and measure it.

This project is a real success for the biodiversity and since two years, it is foreseen to expand the area and the concept to new other cross border spaces in line with the European network of natural areas Natura2000. This program has been set up in 1992 in order to restore the most important natural values of Europe and safeguard them for the next generations. Benelux act for it at many different levels, one of them is the Free Migration of Fish.

Indeed, some species of fish (like the Eel, Atlantic salmon and Sea Trout) have to migrate, move freely through water system, in order to get back to spawning areas. A serial of measures have been taken by the Benelux to eliminate bottlenecks and obstacles to this migration (like the setting up of fish ladders installed at principal dams in the Netherland and Wallonia. This program led to real concrete results, for example North Salmon come back in the Maas catchment basin has been recently noticed and is expected.

Arnaud GRIGNARD

Cross-border work

We are dealing with cross-border worker, which is a person who works in one country and lives in another. There are several examples in the world.

A cross-border region is a territorial entity that is made of several local or regional authorities that are co-located yet belong to different nation states.

• 31 400 Belgian citizens work in the Netherlands.
• 7 300 Dutch citizens work in Belgium.
• 32 600 Belgian citizens work in Luxembourg.
• 450 Luxembourg citizens work in Belgium.
• (Source: Belgian FPS Social Affairs).

Consultation on the position of the cross-border workers

The three countries are engaged in regular consultation on how the countries can resolve the problems of cross-border workers inside the Benelux. The main goal of this consultation is to clarify and improve the cross-border efficiency.

Many cross-border regions receive financial support from European Commission. (Interreg programme) and cooperate with border municipalities, districts or regions. We have the example of EUREGIO.

The name EUREGIO stands for European region. It is used to refer geographically to a section of the Dutch-German border area covering parts of the Dutch provinces Gelderland, Overijssel, and Drenthe as well as parts of the German federal states Nordrhein-Westfalen and Niedersachsen. The region spans some 13,000 km² with about 3.37 million inhabitants.

EUREGIO stimulates and makes easier cross-border cooperation.

It has several tasks such as:

• Social-cultural cooperation (to attack prejudices)
• Social-economic development (to improve structure across the border)
• Inter-municipal cooperation (to facilitate town twinning, cooperation of fire brigade and rescue services …)
• Advisory services (information about business, and doing business across the border)
• Inter-regional cooperation (exchange of ideas and experiences)

Information brochures for cross-border workers

A cross-border worker has to deal with two countries, the country of residence and of work. The main problem concerns tax and social legislations.  In order to understand this relationship, the Benelux each year publishes an information brochure.

The brochure is also addressed to employers of cross-border workers concerning social security. It examines the formalities in order to help the countries to work better and to help people to know all the changes on the social and fiscal levels in order to be in compliance with the law.

Public Health

This is not new, the Benelux countries have always been aware of the importance of good health. The Benelux countries continue to search how they can improve this field. It concerns for example medicinal products, fruit and vegetables, potatoes, bread etc. The countries join forces to offer people in the border the best quality assistance.

The countries try together to provide assistance in major accidents and disasters.

Kévin PINA