Spotlight: Cross-border cooperation essential to fight Eurosceptism, say Dutch local officials

As Maastricht prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of the landmark European Union (EU) Treaty signed in this Dutch town, top local officials call for open borders and closer cross-border cooperation to fight against Eurosceptism and foster integration after the blow of the Brexit vote.

"Europe's cross border regions need more cooperation and fewer borders," Theo Bovens, governor of the Dutch southernmost province of Limburg told reporters. "We need to abolish administrative barriers and harmonize regulations, especially on taxation, health care and social security to increase cooperation across the borders."

Situated between Belgium and Germany, Limburg has 351 km of borders with the two countries and is connected to the rest of the Netherlands by just 113 km. Twenty five minutes by bicycle from its capital city Maastricht is Belgium and in half an hour by car its residents can reach Germany.

In a radius of just 40 km around Maastricht, a population of four million people live in three countries and speak three languages, Dutch, German, French, while around 10 percent of the city's 122,000 inhabitants are students, half of them international. A large number of inhabitants cross the borders every day to go to work, Limburg's governor noted.

"Harmonizing laws across the borders would open new opportunities for the people in cross border regions," echoed Mayor of Maastricht Annemarie Penn-te Strake. "We can be a laboratory showing to the rest of Europe how to transform cross border regions to euro-conglomerations."

Over one third of EU citizens live and work in Europe's border regions, a strong surge from the 1990s. But due to lack of harmonization a significant economic potential remains untapped in the border areas, she said.

Studies undertaken by Limburg show that increased harmonization and cooperation across the borders in this Dutch-German-Belgian area would generate additional growth enough to half the Dutch budget deficit, estimated at 1.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of 2016.

For the Governor of Limburg, development of cross border areas can become paradigms for the EU to fight Eurosceptic nationalists and deepen integration, a primary goal in the Maastricht treaty, a duplicate of which is now showcased in the Gouvernement aan de Maas, the provincial government building of Limburg.

It was there where leaders from the 12 member states of the European Community (EC) reached agreement in December 1991 on "the Treaty on European Union and the Maastricht Final Act" after years of debate. Two months later on 7 February 1992 the finance and foreign affairs ministers of the 12 states returned to the same building to sign the treaty.

Undertaken to integrate Europe and create the bloc's single currency, the Maastricht treaty "was a major step for Europe", said Bovens, acknowledging nevertheless that the agreement transforming the European project from an economic trade pact towards a political union has created disagreement, dissatisfaction and public alienation for the EU.

Criticism over the Maastricht Treaty and in particular against one of its main pillars -- the euro mounted after the financial crisis. The Brexit vote dealt yet another blow to the EU which is still in the grip of an unprecedented migration crisis and of persistent terrorism threats.

"The EU should cast more light on provisions included in the Maastricht treaty, but not developed over time," said Bovens.

"Entangled in the euro crisis we didn't take the time in Europe to discuss the real message of the Maastricht treaty," he explained, referring to provisions related to social and cultural issues as well as the idea of European citizenship.

"We want to give new value and deepen our knowledge on the idea of what we mean by European citizenship," noted the Mayor of Maastricht. In practice, the European citizenship confers few rights, other than an entitlement for long-term EU residents of another member state to vote in local and European Parliament elections in that country.

But the city's mayor aspires to broaden debate on this issue during the year-long "Europe Calling! Maastricht Treaty 25th Anniversary" program, which also includes meetings among top European officials.

One such meeting, the summit of the European People's Party (EPP), the political family of the center-right parties in Europe, takes place on Thursday expected to be joined by leaders of EU institutions and some member states, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Spain's Mariano Rajoy, Hungary's Viktor Orban, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk. Endit