The number of people smoking in the EU has dropped from 33% in 2002 to 27% by Autumn 2005, and 80% of Europeans would like to see smoking banned in public places.
These are two of the main findings of the European Commission’s latest Eurobarometer survey on tobacco, released to mark World No Tobacco Day […]

Members of the Dutch political party, the conservative VVD, have voted moderate Deputy Education Minister Mark Rutte party leader. He won 51 percent of the vote ahead of his rival the hardliner, Rita Verdonk, who gained just over 46 percent. The leadership contest was by Dutch standards very fiercely fought. Both candidates made use of […]

Immigration and Integration Minister Rita Verdonk will pay a working visit to Canada from Monday 5 to Wednesday 7 June 2006. The meetings will focus entirely on information about immigration and integration policies and include such issues as integration of newcomers, attracting highly skilled migrants, Canada’s points system for migrants, border control and prevention of […]

The Netherlands is to build a pavilion for Expo 2010, the world’s fair to be held in Shanghai. The goal is to attract at least 10% of the fair’s visitors, giving seven million people a powerful “Dutch experience”.
The cabinet has set this goal at the suggestion of Bernard Bot (Minister of Foreign Affairs) and […]

A large majority of EU citizens feel that that European institutions communicate poorly with them, according to a poll published on Tuesday (30 May) by the Brussels weekly, European Voice.
Some 82% of the poll respondents are unhappy with the level of interaction with the Brussels institutions with only 18% responding favourably.
And around the same large […]

There is outrage in the Netherlands after paedophiles launched a political party to push for a cut in the legal age of consent.
The Charity, Freedom and Diversity (NVD) party wants the age dropped from 16 to 12, before having it scrapped completely, and also wants child pornography and sex with animals to be legalised, sparking […]

The Belgian Premier, Guy Verhofstadt (Flemish liberal), wants his Dutch counterpart, Jan Peter Balkenende, to stop the Dutch city of Maastricht from moving coffee shops to areas along the Belgian border.
Belgian mayors are up in arms at the plans because they fear the new situation will lead to even more disruption than at present. Thousands […]

In the year that Universiteit Maastricht celebrates its 30th birthday, a special chair on Cultural Diversity, named after Geert Hofstede, will be installed.
On 1 June 2006, during a symposium on Cultural Diversity, professor Mark. F. Peterson will be appointed as the first chair holder on the Geert Hofstede Chair on Cultural Diversity.
Peterson, Internet Coast […]

In 2006, Universiteit Maastricht celebrates its 30th anniversary. To commemorate this birthday the University will organise a grand theatre and music festival.
The festival will take place from June 8th until june 11th at various locations throughout the city (Academieplein, garden and aula Faculty of Economics, Aula Minderbroedersberg, Zwingelput, La Bonbonnière). The University intends to […]

The Netherlands will have more extreme weather in the years ahead, Dutch news agency, ANP, quoted meteorological bureau KNMI as saying on Tuesday.
A long-term KNMI report suggests there will be more frequent heavy downpours during summer. More downpours combined with risingwater levels could lead to increasing flooding in urban areas, it warned.
On the […]

Maastricht Mayor Gerd Leers is pressing ahead with his plan for cannabis boulevards. He yesterday announced he wishes to move seven drug bars from the city centre to locations along the borders with Belgium and Germany.
Maastricht city centre has 15 ‘coffee shops’, as the tolerated cannabis bars are popularly known in the Netherlands. Eight of […]

The Faculty of Law of the University of Maastricht has launched a Weblog on its website at: http://www.rechten.unimaas.nl/blog/
Visitors can read about the daily lives of Aalt Willem Heringa, dean of the Maastricht Faculty of Law (in English), Denise Kremers, a second-year student (in Dutch), and Marelle Attinger, Jeroen Blomsma en Roland Moerland, three Faculty professors […]

The costs per pupil are higher at international schools than at regular schools in the Netherlands. Higher teacher salaries, smaller classes and extra pupil supervision are the reasons for this.
International schools spend 113 million euro
There were 40 international schools for primary and secondary education in the Netherlands in 2004. Twenty are private schools […]

The new herring season in the Netherlands will this year open on 14 June.
Because of the unusual cold spring weather, the fish were not fat enough on the planned date of 31 May. It was the first time in history that the traditional auction of the first keg of Hollandse Nieuwe (New Dutch) herring, to […]

The provinces of Limburg and Liege among others want to invest in the promotion of cross-border tourism along the Meuse, by organising several-days cruise trips on the river and by publishing common cultural and historical guides.
The first four-day cruise started on Sunday and will take 400 passengers to Givet-Sedan in the French Ardennes region. […]

After five consecutive years of deficit, the Open University Netherlands closed the year 2005 with a positive balance of EUR 3 million, according to the annual report for 2005 approved by the OU Supervisory Board.
The measures taken by the OU in recent years to improve the institute’s financial situation seem to have yielded fruit.
Source: […]

On 8 June Hogeschool Zuyd will organise an Information Day in its various facilities in Heerlen, Maastricht and Sittard.
Locations:
Heerlen: Nieuw Eyckholt 300
Maastricht: Brusselseweg 150
Sittard: Havikstraat 5 en Sportcentrumlaan 35
From 4 pm till end 9 pm, visitors will be able to learn about the various education programmes offered by Hogeschool Zuyd.
More information: Hogeschool Zuyd, […]

European ministers have backed a watered-down plan to boost cross-border competition in the EU’s lucrative market in services, opening up a host of sectors, ranging from construction to private health care.
A deadlock was broken after the EU’s new eastern European countries, which wanted to maximise the impact of the legislation, struck a deal with […]

A group of Dutch women, fed up with their partners’ obsession with football, have joined forces to revolt against the World Cup.
On their website (www.wegmethetwk.nl) Women for Football-free Netherlands urge women to take command of the remote controls and make their men serve them breakfast in bed.
Source: Times Online, 29 May 2006
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Insufficient consumption of fish, fruit and vegetables is as bad for human health as smoking, a Dutch report said on Monday.
The study, which the European Food Safety Authority says it will use when analyzing food and diet risks, concludes that most cases of serious illness and death in the Netherlands is caused by poor diet.
“Taking […]

The Dutch remain extremely sceptical about developments within the EU. If a referendum were held again now on the European Constitution, it would be rejected with an even bigger majority than already happened last year, according to a survey by Maurice de Hond.
In the referendum on the European Constitution held on 1 June last year, […]

Fed up with feeling harassed and intimidated at work? If a new poll is to be believed, then move to the Netherlands for an abuse-free work environment. But avoid working in Hungary at all costs.
It’s not just long working hours, repetitive tasks and long meetings that get us down. According to a new poll by […]

People who use hearing aids often complain that the devices are useless in crowded noisy places. Now, a team of Dutch researchers at Delft University of Technology may have solved the problem with a pair of hearing eyeglasses.
Each arm of the eyeglass frame has an array of four tiny directional microphones. Project leader Rinus […]

Foreign students at the University of Maastricht (UM) currently represent more than 30 per cent of the total student population. Although this might appear as a positive sign, the university’s true commitment to internationalisation and to making its foreign guests feel welcome is increasingly being questioned. International students find it hard to interact with the Dutch and do not feel at home in our little country. Will a debate about the integration of international students and the foundation of an international student association make a difference? [continued…]

The proposed European constitution which was rejected last year by Dutch and French voters but approved by fifteen EU member states will not be resurrected in its present form. EU foreign ministers meeting in Vienna this weekend have agreed to wait until 2009, when European elections are scheduled, before presenting a new European document. The […]

The Euroregional Meuse-Rhine Foundation will on 1 January 2007 move to the Belgian city of Eupen, the capital of the Belgian Eastern Cantons (the German-speaking area in the east of Belgium).
Since its creation in 1976, the EMR Foundation has been housed free of charge at the ‘Gouvernement’ building in Maastricht. The Dutch Limburg Provincial […]

The most beautiful word in the dialect of Amsterdam is ‘Achenebbisj’, meaning poor or messy, according to the almost 17,000 people who cast their vote in a contest organised by Het Parool daily newspaper.
Other words in competition were: ‘pikketanissie’ (a cocktail drink), ‘attenoje’ (an exclamation expressing surprise), and ‘drijfsijssie’ (a duck). The traditional […]

An oasis of tranquillity on the centuries-old walls overlooking Maastricht’s Stadspark.

Maastrichts Mooiste (Maastricht’s Most Beautiful) Weekend is coming up again. As of this year on a new summer date. On Saturday the 10th and Sunday the 11th of June, 2006, the entire city is buzzing with sports activities.
Allow yourself a touristy weekend in which health, exercise and coziness are the main thing. With hiking and […]

The University of Leiden has announced that it will not select students according to the results of their high school examinations and will continue its policy of accepting all candidates. The university, which wanted to start selecting candidates on the basis of their grades, changed its mind following a study of last year’s candidates.
The study […]