The EGTC Euregio Meuse-Rhine (EMR) represents a partnership of 5 partner regions within 3 countries: The Region Aachen-Zweckverband in Germany, the Province of Limburg in the Netherlands, the Province of Limburg, the Province of Liège, and the German-speaking Community in Belgium. The Euregio Meuse-Rhin encompasses a territory of ca. 11.000km2 with about 4 million inhabitants.
Tasks
The main mission of the EGTC EMR is to promote, to ease and to enhance cross-border cooperation between the institutions of its partner regions, aiming at a balanced and sustainable territorial development without internal borders.
The EMR functions moreover as a central point of contact, as an intermediary and information point for citizens, civil society, stakeholders, and local as well as regional authorities. The EGTC ambitions to render their everyday life easier.
The EMR gathers relevant stakeholders as a kind of platform in order to initiate projects. Its main tasks include removing obstacles, developing innovative solutions, networking and coordinating initiatives and projects. Backed by former achievements and many years of experiences, the Euregio Meuse-Rhine aims to promote the region among its citizens as well as at international scale.
The EMR defends the interests of its citizens, companies, organizations and municipalities, supporting these to make optimal use of the opportunities at hand on either side of the border and contributing to increase the prosperity as well as well-being of the inhabitants, while taking at the same time into account their cultural differences.
Challenges
Compared to other border regions, the Euregio Meuse-Rhine has to deal with three different languages, rendering administrative procedures sometimes quite burdensome. The cultural difference within the Euregio Meuse-Rhine is however also felt as we deal with diverse legal and political procedures, rendering the decision-taking process often quite challenging as numerous levels of governance with diverging competences have to be involved.
Budget
The Euregio Meuse-Rhine relies on a yearly budget of more or less 550.000 € to finance its staff, projects, events and funds. The five partner-regions second moreover representatives to the office of the EMR.
