The European Union agreed Monday to create an EU-wide driving licence which will replace over 100 existing national versions with a credit-card style document valid across the 25-nation bloc.
After being held up for two years, EU transport ministers gave the green light for the licence under a new EU law to come into force […]

The number of Dutch couples choosing to live together without getting married has shown a marked increase over the last decade. Figures from the Dutch Statistics Office show 0.75 million unmarried couples are living together in the Netherlands. Ten years ago, the figure was 0.5 million. The number of married cohabiting couples has stayed stable […]

Legend has it that, in 1554, the Turkish ambassador to the court of Vienna sent a gift of tulip bulbs to Austria.
Carolus Clausius, a herbalist at the imperial gardens, grew flowers from the bulbs and it was he who wrote the first scientific description of the tulip. When he became professor of botany at […]

The number of foreign students applying to come to the Netherlands rose by 10 percent last year compared with 2004, according to figures released on Friday.
Some 6,500 foreigners applied for a temporary stay visa (MVV) from the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) for study purposes in 2005, whereas 5,924 applications were lodged the year before.
The […]

From 6 till 9 April 2006, Film Theatre Lumiere in Maastricht will show more than 40 films, including some of the best entries of the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
Some of the highlights of the Maastricht Film Festival include: ‘Lunacy’ by Czech director Jan Svankmajer (a Lumiere exclusivity), ‘Where the truth lies’ by Atom Egoyan […]

On 23 March 2006, the first National Park in Flanders has been inaugurated in the Limburg province. It’s called “Nationaal Park Hoge Kempen“.
The park covers a total surface of 5,700 hectares or 14,000 acres and is the biggest natural reserve in Flanders.
The “Hoge Kempen” (high Kemp area) is made up of moorland, vast pine […]

In the Netherlands school aged children in the age range 5 to 16 years no longer participating in any form of education is an increasingly frequent phenomenon. Children who are absent from school for a period of two months or more are referred to as long term truants. On behalf of NWO, Theo van Batenburg […]

The Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) has proposed recovering part of the cost of study from highly-educated women who decide not to seek paid work.
MP Sharon Dijksma, deputy chairperson of the PvdA’s parliamentary party, believes the punitive measure is needed to stimulate more women to join the workforce. She outlined her ideas in ‘Forum’, a magazine […]

The Netherlands must further develop itself as a multicultural society and expend less energy on getting newcomers to alter their values, according to the founders of a new party for non-native Dutch residents.
Different groups within the population should learn from each other, the PAN party said during the presentation in The Hague on Wednesday.
PAN stands […]

Dick Bruna, one of the Netherlands’ most popular authors of children’s books now has an entire museum dedicated to his work: the Dick Bruna House in Utrecht which opened its doors last month.
Bruna is the creator of such world-famous characters as Miffy the Rabbit, Poppy Pig, Snuffy the Dog and Boris Bear. Their stories […]

Kosovo schoolgirl Taida Pasic, who must leave the Netherlands by 28 March, may complete the final portion of her written exams in Sarajevo, it was reported on Wednesday.
Newspaper ‘Nederlands Dagblad’ said the Dutch Ministry of Education has agreed to Pasic, 18, sitting the VWO (pre-university level) exam in the Dutch embassy in the Bosnian capital. […]

A new museum is soon to open its doors in Brussels. Dedicated to Japanese art and antiquities, King Leopold II’s former coach house is finally in use after standing idle for more than 100 years.
King Leopold II built the coach house more 100 years ago but it was never put to use. Ideas for […]

The reopening of Amsterdam’s world-famous Rijksmuseum has been postponed by a year for environmental checks on its renovation plans.
Culture minister Reny van der Laan told the Dutch parliament security measures were reviewed in the light of recent art thefts at several other museums.
Work at Holland’s biggest museum is due to start in 2007, including […]

Dutch schoolchildren as young as 12 are being treated for addiction to a powerful home-grown marijuana which is up to 20 times stronger than imported varieties, an addiction clinic in the Netherlands has revealed.
But while the age of regular and dependent cannabis users has dropped sharply in recent years, the dangers and health hazards […]

Maastricht’s art fair TEFAF drew 84,000 visitors from March 10-19, an increase of 8 percent over 2005, according to figures posted on its website. An influx of modern- art dealers helped to draw more Americans, organizers said.
Art fairs are benefiting from rising numbers of wealthy collectors buying paintings and sculptures for their perceived investment […]

The number of same-sex marriages has stabilised, five years after they were first allowed under the law. In 2005 and 2004, around 1,200 gay men and lesbians tied the knot, compared with more than 2,000 per year in the three years prior.
The Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS), which published the figures, says there was […]

Rabi’a Frank sees her Dutch home town through the narrow slit of the black veil that covers her face.
The looks she receives from the townspeople are seldom kindly.
On a recent winter afternoon, the wind tugged at her ankle-length taupe skirt, olive head scarf and black, rectangular face veil as she walked to her car from […]

The Dutch government is furious after an Italian minister this week branded the country’s euthanasia laws as akin to the policies of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, according to Dutch news agency ANP.
Dutch Prime Minister Balkenende is expected to raise the matter with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi next week at a European summit, ANP […]

Do you love to read? Are you looking for a study or hobby book? Or an affordable and original present? Then don’t miss the Book Festival from 30 March till 2 April at the MECC in Maastricht!

This is not exactly a run-of-the-mill homework assignment: Watch a film clip of an attractive woman sunbathing topless and try not to be shocked.
“People do not make a fuss about nudity,” the narrator explains.
That lesson, about the Netherlands’s nude beaches, is followed by another: Homosexuals have the same rights here as heterosexuals do, including the […]

The story of Taida Pasic has been a big news item in Dutch papers and on television in recent months. After her family’s application for asylum in the Netherlands was turned down last year, the 18-year-old schoolgirl was repatriated to Kosovo. But in January this year Taida re-entered the Netherlands on a tourist visa , because she wanted to sit the final school exams which would complete her six-year Dutch education. [continued…]

Is it wet or dry in the Netherlands? One of the hundred questions in the exam for migrants from outside the European Union who want to settle in the Netherlands. From now on the exam is obligatory. Newcomers have to report to the Netherlands embassy in their home country where they take the test using […]

On Friday 17 March, another two South African researchers will be awarded a PhD at Maastricht University. The occasion marks the UM’s ongoing collaboration and involvement with the Medial Research Council (MRC) in South Africa. Both the Ambassador of South Africa in the Netherlands and the President and Chair of the MRC will visit Maastricht […]

According to a report drawn up at the University of Maastricht, the section of the Dutch population aged between 15 and 64 is expected to decrease by three percent in the next 20 years, but well over 10 percent in some regions. De Volkskrant writes this will have a major impact on unemployment, especially among […]

Dutch mothers seem to be out of step with other mums in the western world: there are plenty of day-care facilities available in the Netherlands, yet many well-trained and highly educated women opt for a part-time job. They tend to prefer putting their careers on hold while the children are young.
“For me, it’s very important […]

As of today, March 15th, migrants wishing to settle in the Netherlands for, in particular, the purposes of marrying or forming a relationship will be required to take the civic integration examination abroad.
Many people aged between 16 and 65 who need an authorisation for temporary residence (MVV) in order to come to the Netherlands […]

A group representing Dutch citizens who want to bring a partner into the country has described the introduction of the integration exam as a dark day in Dutch history.
“As the new law compelling potential migrants to take an integration course abroad comes into effect on 15 March the Netherlands is almost completely locked off,” Paul […]

Maastricht is perhaps best known for the 1992 treaty signed within its precincts, bearing its name and setting the course for modern European political integration. That’s enough to keep almost anybody away. But for 10 days each year, this well-scrubbed southern Dutch city of 130,000 is one of the most glamorous and, on a per […]

A 5-year community health plan in the Netherlands has been deemed successful, with improvement found in three major risk factors for heart disease.
The cardiovascular disease prevention plan targeting residents of Limburg was called Heartbeat Limburg It included nearly 800 programs from bicycling clubs and supermarket education tours to pamphlet distribution, a stop-smoking effort and […]

The Dutch government is to poll public opinion about the future of Europe. A special website - www.nederlandineuropa.nl - where people can make their views known was launched on Monday by Deputy Minister for European Affairs Atzo Nicolaï. The initiative comes in the wake of the massive rejection by Dutch voters of the new European […]