‘Maastricht must become truly international’
Crossroads meets Gerd Leers, Mayor of Maastricht
Location, historical links and EU involvement make Maastricht the most European Dutch city, says Gerd Leers, who was announced the best Mayor in the Netherlands in a recent opinion poll. High on the list of “things to do” in order to elevate the city’s international profile, the Municipality has put prolific Euregional cooperation, greater synergies with Maastricht’s international institutes and surprisingly enough - a mentality change.
Gerd Leers:
For a long time Maastrichtenaren behaved as if there was nothing beyond Maastricht. „There is Maastricht and all around it are peasants“ - people really used to say that in Maastricht - „peasants“ being the outsiders. This illustrates the predominant local mentality of the 1960s and 1970s. Today Maastricht must - without losing its character, its beauty and qualities - open up to „outsiders“. This is a process which is already taking place and is quite advanced but I think it can go even further. Maastricht must become truly international.
Do you really see that happening?
GL: If this city wants to prepare itself for the future, it must become more open and attract new people - both young and old - but then we must have something to offer them. We must also be able to let go of things we have cherished until now. On the other hand, we must preserve our character because if we globalise ourselves to the extent that we become blurred with the rest of Europe, then we will have nothing to offer. The secret is in finding a good balance.
How will that opening-up affect Maastricht’s international institutes?
GL: From our recent research it appears that there are over 120 Europe-oriented institutes in Maastricht. They give great added value to our city but we do not use them sufficiently and we do not support them enough. We do too little to link them with each other and to make use of these synergies. We should be much more actively involved. We must try to tie these institutes to the city because many people who work there contribute to Maastricht’s life. We must involve these people more, show them our hospitality. To that end we are, for example, setting up an international club. Many foreigners who work here are often lonely and seldom have contacts with the local population. The Maastrichtenaar is, after all, not someone who easily opens up to other people; not to the Dutch and even less to foreigners. We have to involve the staff of the international institutes more in local culture; to make them feel at home. We can do that by establishing an international club, but also by involving them more in the city’s activities and making them feel part of the whole. We are now slowly undergoing a process of awakening and we realise that we have a treasure which we do not use and we are going to change that.
What more can the international institutes do for the city?
GL: There are institutes - such as the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), for example - that are active all over Europe in training highlevel civil servants and we in Maastricht make too little use of their expertise. We could check if it is possible to collaborate with EIPA to meet the city’s needs for a highly trained administration. There has been a great demand for EIPA’s knowledge but the institute has limited resources and cannot help everyone. It is like trying to buy a particular car, but if the factory makes too few of them and the wait is too long then one might decide upon another brand. EIPA faces this danger now. We must be careful that another European country does not decide to set up such an institute of its own. This is why I am working together with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Bot, to give EIPA more of an international institution profile so that it can be supported by Europe, which will in turn allow it to grow and achieve more. In addition, we have many events that pass unnoticed by staff of the international institutes - look at the Preuvenemint, the Carnival - and it is the same for big campaigns that we launch. The success or failure of connecting our city to the TGV network, for example, will depend, to a great extent, on Maastricht-based expatriates because they are the people travelling to Brussels on a daily basis. Something that no one realised until recently.
How far is cooperation with neighbouring regions on crossborder projects?
GL: Active international links are something that we are forced to invest in. For example, if we want a travel network which does not end in the middle of nowhere, we should find a connection to the existing infrastructure in Liège. The same applies to navigation on the Meuse or to labour mobility. In brief, Maastricht is internationally oriented and internationally active and such possibilities should be better exploited. This is my strategy. We have to be better prepared to optimally use the resources of the region. Together with Aachen, Hasselt, Heerlen and Liège we should think about the ways in which we can better employ each other’s assets. For example, Maastricht and Liège should make greater use of each other’s cultural facilities. Liège airport - one of the fastest growing airports in the region - can also bring in much more if there is a common strategy for its use. My contacts with the Mayors of Aachen, Hasselt, Heerlen and Liège have quadrupled in the last years. We used to get together once per year for a meeting which was seen as an obligation and now we hold real working meetings. It will be a pity if we are all focused on our own cities and do not consider how we can use each other’s competences and the ways that we can be of help to each other.
Interview by Tsveti Nacheva
Source: Crossroads print issue, July 2005
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