Most cities have no clear view of how to tackle problems involving immigrants. In the coalition agreements concluded after the local council elections of 7 March, policy on integration gets no further than vague aims, according to an analysis by the University of Amsterdam.
The university’s Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies made a study of […]

The sixth edition of the Manus van Alles multicultural festival will take place on Sunday 25 June in the Wittevrouwenveld quarter of Maastricht.
The festival will feature various music and dance performances (rai music, dancers from Georgia, gypsy groups), a street fair, children activities, food and drinks market etc.
The Manus van Alles festival is organised by […]

Concerts, presentations, exhibitions, workshops, all presented and organised by the students of ‘Hogeschool Zuyd’.
Location: In and around Tongersepoort (Tongersestraat).
Programme (pdf): Coup Maastricht, Hogeschool Zuyd
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The city library at Centre Céramique is organising its half-yearly book market on 23-24 June.
Redundant books and CDs will respectively be sold for EUR 0,50 and EUR 1,00 a piece.
Opening times:
Friday 23 June: 10.30 - 16.30
Saturday 24 June: 10.00 - 14.30

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Network operator Ozone is to offer all residents of Brussels a free wireless internet connection.
The service is completely free, but for a monthly fee of EUR 20, consumers will be given 500mb at their disposal and faster speeds of 4mb / second.
To take advantage of the wireless services, users will not need to […]

Interesting feature article in Radio Netherlands:
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands is in neighbouring Belgium for a three-day state visit, aimed at strengthening diplomatic and friendship ties.
Despite their common history, traditions and - to an extent - language, the two countries are in many ways miles apart.
From 1815-1831, The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg were […]

The United States and the European Union signed a new eight-year agreement Wednesday on cooperation in higher education and vocational training on the sidelines of an EU-US Summit with US President George W. Bush in Vienna, according to a statement.
[…] “The new agreement will usher in innovative transatlantic degree programmes, promote exchanges of students, […]

How should European cultural heritage be preserved in the age of the Internet? What are the implications of new technologies on the European cultural scene? A conference in Salzburg, Austria is looking for answers.
“An Expedition to European Digital Cultural Heritage” — a two-day international conference on digitalizing Europe’s cultural legacy — opened on Tuesday in […]

Press Release from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
Q: What will Taylor’s trial in The Hague cost the Netherlands?
A: Considerable additional costs are expected as a result of trying Taylor in the Netherlands. The Special Court for Sierra Leone will cover these costs, except for certain items like security and transport in the Netherlands, which […]

Former Dutch lawmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who was threatened with losing her citizenship for lying on her refugee application, will retain her adopted nationality, according to Dutch media reports Tuesday.
The Somali-born Hirsi Ali, an outspoken critic of fundamentalist Islam, resigned last month after Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk ruled her application was invalid because she gave […]

Almost 21,500 people have signed a petition against the controversial integration legislation drawn up by Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk.
Campaign coordinator Mustafa Ayranci said on Tuesday that opponents of the bill believe it is discriminatory and they want parliament to remove the mandatory requirement to undertake an integration course and exam in the Dutch language […]

The latest Eurobarometer survey reveals that Europeans are becoming more optimistic about biotechnology, with 52 per cent of those polled saying they believed biotechnology would improve their quality of life.
‘Europeans and Biotechnology in 2005: Patterns and Trends’ is the sixth in a series of surveys carried out by the European Commission on Europeans’ attitudes […]

Dutch shop staff have come second in a six-country survey of customer friendliness. The Germans came first and the French were at the bottom of the list, international bureau Grass Root said. It based its findings on visits by 3,500 of its clients to banks, car dealers, fast food restaurants and a range of other […]

In the EU25 (see footnote 1), in 2005, 37% of people aged between 16 and 74 had no basic computer skills (see footnote 2). This percentage was slightly higher for women (39%) than for men (34%). Among Member States for which data are available, the survey showed notable differences between countries. Large differences also existed […]

Through a donation of the Faculty of Health Sciences a start can be made to restore the medical library in the Indonesian Banda Aceh. In December 2004 the largest part of the library of the Syiah Kuala University & Zainul Abidin Academic Hospital was wiped away by the Tsunami. Forty books on two small shelves […]

Absenteeism among workers has been on the decline in recent years. Besides that, a recent health and safety survey held under 23,000 workers shows that working conditions are increasingly less responsible for sick leave. Working conditions only cause 25% of all absenteeism.
According to the survey, sick leave in the private sector went down from […]

More than one third (35.3%) of all workers do not receive a (full) contribution from their employer towards childcare expenses. This is the conclusion of a recent survey on the matter, done at the request of Minister of Social Affairs and Employment Aart Jan de Geus.
The 2005 Childcare Act stipulates that childcare expense should […]

With 1.4 million flights a year Eurocontrol’s Upper Area Control Centre (UAC) at Maastricht Aachen Airport is the second busiest Air Traffic Control Centre in Europe, after London. Its 250 air traffic controllers supervise the sky of Belgium, north-west Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Day and night. A role model in Europe while new legislation for the “Single European Sky” is coming up. [continued…]

A poll of more than 2,000 members of the Dutch armed forces shows that a majority would rather not have ethnic minorities in the military. Among the lower ranks, three-quarters of respondents had a negative attitude towards minorities. The same was true, to a lesser extent, among senior officers. The findings are in stark […]

Read in today’s Netherlands Radio Press Review:
The government has kicked off a campaign to clean up the Netherlands: in future, people who throw cigarette butts, soft drink cans and other litter on the street can expect a fine of up to 50 or 60 euros. It’s about time that the authorities act, writes De Telegraaf, […]

Two students from the University of Maastricht’s European Studies programme in cooperation with Mundo (Maastricht University Centre for International Cooperation in Academic Development), have created a website offering an overview of organisations involved in development and cooperation. The website lists a total of sixty regional and (inter)national institutes providing students with information about internship and […]

Several towns have been battling for the honour of being able to claim that the Flemish Primitive painter, Jan Van Eyck, was one of their own. Archaeologists now believe that the painter of the Adoration of the Lamb hailed from the Limburg town of Maaseik.
You probably won’t have lost any sleep over it, but Arendonk […]

To retain its position as one of the top technology regions in Europe, Eindhoven has to attract an increasing number of international knowledge workers. To offset the shortage of Dutch graduates with a degree in science and technology, the current three to five thousand expats living and working in Eindhoven will need to have increased […]

The Harlem Gospel Choir has been invited by André Rieu to perform during his three Maastricht Vrijthof concerts on 14, 15 and 16 July.
The Harlem Gospel Choir enjoys world fame and has performed for Nelson Mandela and Pope John Paul II.
Source: L1 News (in Dutch)
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Read in the latest issue of the Meuse-Rhine Journal:
The ‘European Best Student Company 2006’ award will be presented in Maastricht on Saturday, July 8 from 10:00 to 12:00 at Government House. The best student entrepreneurs from Europe (13 teams from Switzerland, Russia, Belgium, Romania, Denmark, Norway, and The Netherlands) will compete for the title of […]

Read in the latest issue of the Meuse-Rhine Journal:
Maastricht University will be starting a new program in February 2007. This program is part of the University’s plan to establish a new forensic institute. This new institute will meet the increasing demand for forensic research in criminal law but will also enable new research to be […]

The EU will spend a greater proportion of its budget on research and development following the adoption of a report on the 7th Framework Programme. Although MEPs would have preferred to see a larger amount spent, the House supported a budget of more than €50bn for 2007-2013 which is a considerable increase compared to the […]

A film made by scientists beat off strong competition from European broadcasters to take top honours at a science media festival in Tromsø, Norway, last week.
Scientists from EuroStemCell, a European stem cell research consortium, produced the short documentary “A Stem Cell Story” in collaboration with Edinburgh-based
filmmakers. The international jury was impressed by director Cameron Duguid’s […]

Over the next two decades the number of inhabitants in the Netherlands is expected to increase by 600 thousand, bringing the total to 16.9 million. The growth areas will be primarily in the provinces North and South Holland and Flevoland. The current decrease in the number of inhabitants in Limburg is expected to continue.
There will […]

An average 430 thousand people were unemployed in the Netherlands in the period March-May 2006. After correction for seasonal effects, the number comes to 418 thousand. This is 10 thousand fewer than in the period February-April 2006, according to the latest figures from Statistics Netherlands.
In the period March-May 2006, 5.8 percent of the labour […]