[Music]
ladies and gentlemen it’s a interesting
question why after so many years of
European integration it’s still so
difficult to to work together cross
borders why is that that we have so many
successes the internal market we have
the Euro but it’s still so difficult
just incident we are so close to the
border to work together with our
neighbors in Belgium or in Germany so
there are some paradoxes between
European integration and you
regionalization and we have to
understand that in order to build up
capacities to overcome the new
complexity that we are confronted with
the thing is that normally you think we
have less complexity in a border region
because of Europe but in fact I will
show you that there is even more
complexity than perhaps 30 or 40 years
ago I will start with a mouse because I
grew up in the very south in Germany
close to the Swiss border with this
Mouse and I know there are some in the
room who also drew up with this Mouse
please show me not everybody not
everybody it has to do with age yeah the
mouse is the symbol for the paradox of a
lost language I would say it is a
handicap today why it’s so difficult and
vamoosh already mentioned that why is it
so difficult today it was to communicate
for younger people across borders
I came to Maastricht 20 years ago and
worked for European Institute and now
for the University of course with my
European dream I thought as I said now
internal market the free movement of
persons the border that’s the past you
can’t forget about the border we will
have there open borders in Europe and
it’s – probably it was a
misunderstanding
for me because in my daily life in
Maastricht of course I cross the border
every day that’s for instance by the way
on a Saturday morning when I take the
bicycle from yeh kadal in Maastricht and
I go to my Belgian bakery in Canning 12
minutes according to Google Maps on the
bike I’m faster of course I do it in six
minutes and in the bakery I can tell you
it’s a wonderful chaos of languages in
Canada they speak they speak in there in
the bakery they speak some Flemish or
Limburg dialects from Belgium they speak
of course my streets and they also speak
French of course many french-speaking
people can come to fetch up some cakes
and even they speak some German bye and
then so I fell also in love not only
with the European Union but with the you
region mask ein and you see that the
bakery where I go to on a Saturday is
the center it’s the center of this you
region more or less you see that exactly
and there are a lot of success stories
with is you region one of the oldest in
in the European Union we have wonderful
cooperation with police forces or
hospitals or schools wonderful interact
projects you could say Wow after 40
years of your regional cooperation we
should reach a high level it’s true yes
we reached a very high level and if you
compare that to other you regions it’s
certainly higher than at this Levac
Hungarian border or certainly in Eastern
Europe they need international bus lines
or they just start up to have this
cooperation that we have today but what
is so difficult for us today to come
from a high level of European
cooperation to a really high level
because for the last 10 years probably
we are stuck it is a bit regression if
you learn a language it’s easy in the
first couple of months but then later on
it’s more difficult me myself I realize
that
Dutch as a German you think it’s a piece
of cake but finally it’s quite difficult
so I did some studies for the province
of Limburg for instance on the labour
market what do we have to do more or
less to come to our new regional dream
to have a joint labour market with 4
million inhabitants in this yuri-chan
mass rhine where we can benefit from a
metropolitan area and where we can
compete with the run start all with the
Rhineland or the Stuttgart region where
I come from so when I looked into that I
found some paradoxes paradoxes where I
thought wow after so many years of
European integration I did not expect
that it’s still so difficult because we
have for instance a wonderful you region
of shopping and leisure so people they
find the outlet in Rome and if they live
in the early beat and people of course
they find also the city of Maastricht on
a Thursday when there is a German
national holiday and I will not go to
the city centre because I love my German
competitors but not so many at the same
time on the first day in the city centre
of mastery so there is a wonderful
shopping your region but of course we
also have a you region of lousy public
transport if you talk about trains do
you remember there was this train just
five years ago when I travelled very
often with this train to Liege and very
often I missed a connection there and I
had to wait there for an hour for
another train to Brussels so that’s also
reality the province is heavily pushing
and trying to improve that but but it’s
so difficult why astonishingly enough
the national systems today for instance
the technical systems or the ticketing
or what-have-you are more sophisticated
than 34
years ago so it’s today much more
difficult to work together in
international connections it is for
instance a problem that the drivers
machinist and that they have different
education and this is already creating a
problem which was apparently not a
problem fifty years ago when we had a
lot of international train connections
even in Turek if you look in to interact
and I did that that’s of course European
money where we finance our wonderful
joint projects in the region even there
is a paradox more or less it’s the
paradox of a gift it makes you a bit
lazy if you look at the organization you
reach in math sign it’s hundred percent
dependent more or less on projects
financed by Brussels money and the
objectives they come from Brussels there
is no budget the your region does not
have a real budget in order to say these
are our activities our priorities and we
will give money to schools or whatsoever
sau region and we will do that for the
next ten years in a really stable
situation so the paradox of interact is
that we did not think about what is
after interact because there will be
also in a few years time probably a
situation where we don’t have finances
from Brussels and then we are totally
lost because there you region today has
not a known budget if you look into the
labor market that’s the the biggest
paradox I would say if you see the
modest numbers of limburger’s who work
in Germany for instance this is really
an island in terms of percentages so
with such a short border with the
mainland the Netherlands and such a big
border to the rest to the two
neighboring countries of course you have
a problem with a labor market people
today commute to
– and further from Limburg that they do
not commute they do not work in hat
sugan rat or in earthen if you see the
historical development here we see
actually that even in the 70s there was
a sort of peak when many Limburg
suddenly went to the Arkin region
because of the closing of the mines and
there was a short boom in Germany but
after that until the year 2000 we are we
were at a level of the the 60s and even
today it’s not much more so there is no
correlation between the European
integration internal market euro what
have you and more or less a real
mobility on a cross-border labor market
so we cannot benefit from the
Metropolitan wonderful area with so many
companies in the U region and so many
universities and institutions why has to
do also with another paradox the paradox
of bureaucracy increased bureaucracy
which is totally bizarre we have today
more bureaucracy than probably 40 years
ago if you look into Texas Health
Services pension schemes and others so
it is extremely complex today because
also the same with the railway system
the member states if they are allowed to
if there is no European harmonization of
course they go their own way and they
did that in a very extensive way with
very sophisticated systems in the Member
States that are today far away from each
other so the reintegration scheme if you
are ill in the Netherlands that is a
sophisticated system but it’s totally
different from the German system if you
are ill and that means that also for
cross-border work this creates extra
problems for employers and for employees
what’s the solution more complexity you
need more capacity to deal with it so
certainly it’s not time to say
the hague or berlin you have to reduce
complexity of course it’s always good to
know how to lobby that you can avoid the
biggest problems but if we are honest
within the next 10 or 20 years there
will be not less complexity we have to
deal with that we have to build up in
the U region institutions and teams
cross-border teams who know exactly what
the problem is and can tell that to the
citizens to cross border workers to
employers to the politicians in order
that we have a big picture of the
complexity and because we have to live
with it coming back to the mouse and the
paradox of the lost language that is
exactly a handicap that was not there 30
years ago because people of my age in
Limburg they watched a German program on
the German television and I know that
their language skills are very high and
they have also a relation to the culture
of the country if I talk to my children
and they tell me that at their school
they hated the German lesson and
probably they will never think about
going to Aachen and going to the LVT
high and study there they think about
New York
probably because they are grown up in an
international world a swimjet
International on YouTube on internet so
that’s also the paradox that
internationalization does not really
help us in the U region it even prevents
our kids more or less to learn more
about the neighbors and to really
benefit from the situation here that’s
why the problem is province of Limburg
has a plan to support schools to support
this type of wonderful exchange but to
be honest we have to build it up from
scratch again we have to start again
with the languages in our schools and
probably also with another ambition that
we have to
to be honest the programs are wonderful
but if you see the finances we also need
they’re much more impetus and much more
reality if you want to change that you
really have to invest that’s the most
bizarre one the paradox of the digital
world
you think digital means crossing the
border data exchange whatsoever but if
you work in the Netherlands and you live
in Germany you cannot register for a DDD
peace are a digital world is now
preventing cross-border workers from
communicating with Dutch authorities who
do not probably deal with a letter that
you send them because everything is
digital in the country so also this
normally politicians would never expect
that this is a major problem but it is
as a German if you come to a Dutch his
railway station and you have no off a
chip card that is also a problem it’s
also a problem of course for ticketing
if we say in the you region we really
need a proper ticket to have a ticket
from hand to Liege and to Maastricht if
you talk to people who try to do that
they say the digital systems you will
never bring them together the offensive
card and the German or a Belgium system
so also that is new complexity and I
will not talk about them out the
autobahn mode no no we have to pay it
first January 2019 you have to make a
choice one week one month or a year and
you have to have the green sticker for
the city centre of our that’s the
original reality today which is a bit of
problem so what’s the conclusion if we
have some politicians in the room we
really need a restart of the you region
we need a sort of you reach your calling
not only Europe calling and that means
in the first place be real
say yes growing complexity means more
capacities and we have to invest in that
we need a you region that invests also
in its own organization who has an own
budget and also have its own objectives
priorities and is able also with a big
team a personnel in order to implement
that I guess that’s the future of the
you region and if you say no we do that
as a hobby you have a problem thank you
very much
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
ladies and gentlemen it’s a interesting
question why after so many years of
European integration it’s still so
difficult to to work together cross
borders why is that that we have so many
successes the internal market we have
the Euro but it’s still so difficult
just incident we are so close to the
border to work together with our
neighbors in Belgium or in Germany so
there are some paradoxes between
European integration and you
regionalization and we have to
understand that in order to build up
capacities to overcome the new
complexity that we are confronted with
the thing is that normally you think we
have less complexity in a border region
because of Europe but in fact I will
show you that there is even more
complexity than perhaps 30 or 40 years
ago I will start with a mouse because I
grew up in the very south in Germany
close to the Swiss border with this
Mouse and I know there are some in the
room who also drew up with this Mouse
please show me not everybody not
everybody it has to do with age yeah the
mouse is the symbol for the paradox of a
lost language I would say it is a
handicap today why it’s so difficult and
vamoosh already mentioned that why is it
so difficult today it was to communicate
for younger people across borders
I came to Maastricht 20 years ago and
worked for European Institute and now
for the University of course with my
European dream I thought as I said now
internal market the free movement of
persons the border that’s the past you
can’t forget about the border we will
have there open borders in Europe and
it’s – probably it was a
misunderstanding
for me because in my daily life in
Maastricht of course I cross the border
every day that’s for instance by the way
on a Saturday morning when I take the
bicycle from yeh kadal in Maastricht and
I go to my Belgian bakery in Canning 12
minutes according to Google Maps on the
bike I’m faster of course I do it in six
minutes and in the bakery I can tell you
it’s a wonderful chaos of languages in
Canada they speak they speak in there in
the bakery they speak some Flemish or
Limburg dialects from Belgium they speak
of course my streets and they also speak
French of course many french-speaking
people can come to fetch up some cakes
and even they speak some German bye and
then so I fell also in love not only
with the European Union but with the you
region mask ein and you see that the
bakery where I go to on a Saturday is
the center it’s the center of this you
region more or less you see that exactly
and there are a lot of success stories
with is you region one of the oldest in
in the European Union we have wonderful
cooperation with police forces or
hospitals or schools wonderful interact
projects you could say Wow after 40
years of your regional cooperation we
should reach a high level it’s true yes
we reached a very high level and if you
compare that to other you regions it’s
certainly higher than at this Levac
Hungarian border or certainly in Eastern
Europe they need international bus lines
or they just start up to have this
cooperation that we have today but what
is so difficult for us today to come
from a high level of European
cooperation to a really high level
because for the last 10 years probably
we are stuck it is a bit regression if
you learn a language it’s easy in the
first couple of months but then later on
it’s more difficult me myself I realize
that
Dutch as a German you think it’s a piece
of cake but finally it’s quite difficult
so I did some studies for the province
of Limburg for instance on the labour
market what do we have to do more or
less to come to our new regional dream
to have a joint labour market with 4
million inhabitants in this yuri-chan
mass rhine where we can benefit from a
metropolitan area and where we can
compete with the run start all with the
Rhineland or the Stuttgart region where
I come from so when I looked into that I
found some paradoxes paradoxes where I
thought wow after so many years of
European integration I did not expect
that it’s still so difficult because we
have for instance a wonderful you region
of shopping and leisure so people they
find the outlet in Rome and if they live
in the early beat and people of course
they find also the city of Maastricht on
a Thursday when there is a German
national holiday and I will not go to
the city centre because I love my German
competitors but not so many at the same
time on the first day in the city centre
of mastery so there is a wonderful
shopping your region but of course we
also have a you region of lousy public
transport if you talk about trains do
you remember there was this train just
five years ago when I travelled very
often with this train to Liege and very
often I missed a connection there and I
had to wait there for an hour for
another train to Brussels so that’s also
reality the province is heavily pushing
and trying to improve that but but it’s
so difficult why astonishingly enough
the national systems today for instance
the technical systems or the ticketing
or what-have-you are more sophisticated
than 34
years ago so it’s today much more
difficult to work together in
international connections it is for
instance a problem that the drivers
machinist and that they have different
education and this is already creating a
problem which was apparently not a
problem fifty years ago when we had a
lot of international train connections
even in Turek if you look in to interact
and I did that that’s of course European
money where we finance our wonderful
joint projects in the region even there
is a paradox more or less it’s the
paradox of a gift it makes you a bit
lazy if you look at the organization you
reach in math sign it’s hundred percent
dependent more or less on projects
financed by Brussels money and the
objectives they come from Brussels there
is no budget the your region does not
have a real budget in order to say these
are our activities our priorities and we
will give money to schools or whatsoever
sau region and we will do that for the
next ten years in a really stable
situation so the paradox of interact is
that we did not think about what is
after interact because there will be
also in a few years time probably a
situation where we don’t have finances
from Brussels and then we are totally
lost because there you region today has
not a known budget if you look into the
labor market that’s the the biggest
paradox I would say if you see the
modest numbers of limburger’s who work
in Germany for instance this is really
an island in terms of percentages so
with such a short border with the
mainland the Netherlands and such a big
border to the rest to the two
neighboring countries of course you have
a problem with a labor market people
today commute to
– and further from Limburg that they do
not commute they do not work in hat
sugan rat or in earthen if you see the
historical development here we see
actually that even in the 70s there was
a sort of peak when many Limburg
suddenly went to the Arkin region
because of the closing of the mines and
there was a short boom in Germany but
after that until the year 2000 we are we
were at a level of the the 60s and even
today it’s not much more so there is no
correlation between the European
integration internal market euro what
have you and more or less a real
mobility on a cross-border labor market
so we cannot benefit from the
Metropolitan wonderful area with so many
companies in the U region and so many
universities and institutions why has to
do also with another paradox the paradox
of bureaucracy increased bureaucracy
which is totally bizarre we have today
more bureaucracy than probably 40 years
ago if you look into Texas Health
Services pension schemes and others so
it is extremely complex today because
also the same with the railway system
the member states if they are allowed to
if there is no European harmonization of
course they go their own way and they
did that in a very extensive way with
very sophisticated systems in the Member
States that are today far away from each
other so the reintegration scheme if you
are ill in the Netherlands that is a
sophisticated system but it’s totally
different from the German system if you
are ill and that means that also for
cross-border work this creates extra
problems for employers and for employees
what’s the solution more complexity you
need more capacity to deal with it so
certainly it’s not time to say
the hague or berlin you have to reduce
complexity of course it’s always good to
know how to lobby that you can avoid the
biggest problems but if we are honest
within the next 10 or 20 years there
will be not less complexity we have to
deal with that we have to build up in
the U region institutions and teams
cross-border teams who know exactly what
the problem is and can tell that to the
citizens to cross border workers to
employers to the politicians in order
that we have a big picture of the
complexity and because we have to live
with it coming back to the mouse and the
paradox of the lost language that is
exactly a handicap that was not there 30
years ago because people of my age in
Limburg they watched a German program on
the German television and I know that
their language skills are very high and
they have also a relation to the culture
of the country if I talk to my children
and they tell me that at their school
they hated the German lesson and
probably they will never think about
going to Aachen and going to the LVT
high and study there they think about
New York
probably because they are grown up in an
international world a swimjet
International on YouTube on internet so
that’s also the paradox that
internationalization does not really
help us in the U region it even prevents
our kids more or less to learn more
about the neighbors and to really
benefit from the situation here that’s
why the problem is province of Limburg
has a plan to support schools to support
this type of wonderful exchange but to
be honest we have to build it up from
scratch again we have to start again
with the languages in our schools and
probably also with another ambition that
we have to
to be honest the programs are wonderful
but if you see the finances we also need
they’re much more impetus and much more
reality if you want to change that you
really have to invest that’s the most
bizarre one the paradox of the digital
world
you think digital means crossing the
border data exchange whatsoever but if
you work in the Netherlands and you live
in Germany you cannot register for a DDD
peace are a digital world is now
preventing cross-border workers from
communicating with Dutch authorities who
do not probably deal with a letter that
you send them because everything is
digital in the country so also this
normally politicians would never expect
that this is a major problem but it is
as a German if you come to a Dutch his
railway station and you have no off a
chip card that is also a problem it’s
also a problem of course for ticketing
if we say in the you region we really
need a proper ticket to have a ticket
from hand to Liege and to Maastricht if
you talk to people who try to do that
they say the digital systems you will
never bring them together the offensive
card and the German or a Belgium system
so also that is new complexity and I
will not talk about them out the
autobahn mode no no we have to pay it
first January 2019 you have to make a
choice one week one month or a year and
you have to have the green sticker for
the city centre of our that’s the
original reality today which is a bit of
problem so what’s the conclusion if we
have some politicians in the room we
really need a restart of the you region
we need a sort of you reach your calling
not only Europe calling and that means
in the first place be real
say yes growing complexity means more
capacities and we have to invest in that
we need a you region that invests also
in its own organization who has an own
budget and also have its own objectives
priorities and is able also with a big
team a personnel in order to implement
that I guess that’s the future of the
you region and if you say no we do that
as a hobby you have a problem thank you
very much
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
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