Cross-border development in Europe.

Upcoming P2 presentation
Tuesday, 15 January 2019
13:45 – 14:45
Room BK-IZ Q

Annika Van Den Heuvel

A strategy for cross-border regional development in Europe, taking regional identity as foundation: The case of the Maas-Rijn Euregio.
Maas-Rijn Euregio,the Netherlands/Belgium/Germany

Europeans are losing their faith in the current system of cross-border cooperation, which is considered to be too top-down governed by “Brussels”, and focused only on internationalisation and Western modernisation. This has contributed to a dangerous rise of nationalism across Europe. Against this background, this project proposes a new approach to cross-border development, focusing on the case of the Maas-Rijn Euregio. By using local strengths – in this case the landscape and cultural history – a spatial strategy will be developed, focusing on the relation between the built environment, natural landscape and identity. In addition, how bottom-up initiatives influence governance structures will be explored.