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
