About 40 café’s will surprise you with a festival of high quality with a great variety of styles. Contemporary and classical jazz, bebop, funk, soul, blues, salsa, R&B, besides gipsy, ethnic and ‘world’. Meet some of Holland’s great names like Eric Vloeimans and Harmen Fraanje, the phenomenon on guitar Emiel van Egdom and the American […]

The Pink Party was established in 1978 by the GLBT organisation COC Limburg with the intention to give more meaning to the word ‘integration’. The Pink Party is still organised by COC Limburg and has over the years become one of the biggest gay parties in The Netherlands. The party is organised twice a year, […]

For ten years, ‘de Nederlandse Dansdagen’ has offered the opportunity to enjoy a magnificent sampling of Dutch dance theatre in a festival atmosphere. It provides the perfect setting to become acquainted with the current developments in the Dutch dance field. A selection committee chose their favourite performances from the vast range of new dance works […]

From today’s edition of Radio Netherlands Press Review:
Trouw reports today on the problems with ethnically mixed schools. The paper reports that mixed schools are the government’s proclaimed ideal, but a ‘black’ school trying to attract more white children often gets less government subsidy.
The deputy principal of an Amsterdam primary school says she loves the […]

While the European Union celebrates European Languages Day, its officials are quietly moving towards creating a new language of their own.
Read the rest of this very interesting article here.
Source: Expatica Germany, 26 September 2007
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Europeans should learn more foreign languages and not think that a “lingua franca” – one language used internationally - is enough, EU commissioner for multilingualism Leonard Orban said on Wednesday (26 September).
Currently, 56 percent of Europeans feel they could have a decent conversation in at least one foreign language, while 28 percent feel comfortable in […]

Four out of ten Dutch people think the country has deteriorated since the 1990s. A study by magazine Reader’s Digest shows that the Dutch gave the Netherlands seven out of ten back then and only six now. The study concludes that Dutch citizens have less faith in legislation, law and order, politics, the police, integration […]

The fact that a person holds dual nationality need not form an obstacle to their integrating into Dutch society. That’s one of the conclusions reached by the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) in a report prepared for the Dutch government. The Council also writes that an increasing number of people across the world […]

Small primary schools in the municipality of Maasdriel (Gelderland) are facing difficulties because of a large influx of Polish children.
Read full article: Expatica Netherlands, 24 September 2007
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The municipalities of Lanaken, Riemst and Voeren want to take the city of Maastricht to court if it goes ahead with its plan to move coffeeshops closer to the Belgian-Dutch border. The three municipalities have hired a Dutch law firm to represent them.
Read full article: Expatica Belgium, 24 September 2007
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Because the new EU treaty is a regular reform treaty, the normal approval procedure will be followed. The government does not feel that a referendum is an appropriate instrument.
The government sees the new treaty as similar to those of Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice, and like those earlier treaties, it can be approved via the normal […]

When highly skilled migrants come to the Netherlands to practice their profession, they are assessed from a very Dutch point of view.
More weight is given to diplomas than to work experience, and the ability to speak Dutch is imperative. These are the findings of Astrid Scholten, who studied the use of portfolio assessments […]

The Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) says the Dutch must adapt themselves more to Islam. It also advises the elimination of the word ‘allochtoon’, the most common term used to describe residents with a foreign background.
The WRR itself thought up the word allochtoon in 1989. In a report at the time it was suggested […]

From today’s edition of Radio Netherlands’ press review:
De Volkskrant writes that an increasing number of East Europeans workers are settling down in the Netherlands. The Statistics Office reports that more than 70,000 Poles, Bulgarians and Romanians are now registered with local councils. If the trend continues, their number will have grown to 100,000 by 2010.
A […]

The Health Council of the Netherlands has asked Health Minister Ab Klink to ensure that all prospective parents receive advice about a responsible lifestyle. The idea is that couples planning to start families should be informed about a healthy diet, alcohol, hereditary diseases, medicines and work environments. European research shows a relatively high proportion of […]

About 20 brothels in the Dutch capital’s red light district are to be sold to a major housing association and converted into homes. This means that 50 of the Dutch capital’s famous windows, where prostitutes tout for business, will close - about one-third of the present number.
Towards the end of last year, Amsterdam city council […]

The Dutch government announced Tuesday (18 September) that it will provide funding of EUR 45 million to the BioMedical Materials program (BMM) which has been initiated by DSM and the University of Maastricht. BMM is a public-private partnership in the Netherlands that focuses on research and development in the field of biomedical materials. The program […]

The cabinet is targeting substantial tax increases next year, particularly on consumer articles and on “activities that are unfriendly to the environment”, as Queen Beatrix but it. Below is a selection of the most important measures in the 2008 budget announced by the cabinet yesterday.
ECONOMY
- The main VAT rate goes up from 19 to […]

Car manufacturer Nedcar seems to have been rescued, the Telegraaf writes. Owner Mitsubishi wants to move the production of tens of thousands of SUVs a year from Japan to the plant in Born, Limburg, according to insiders. This will increase production from 70,000 to 100,000 units. The future of the plant was uncertain after the […]

Mexican Party at Cafe Highlander with the Tuna Universitaria de Maastricht
Venue: Cafe Highlander
Date: Thursday 20 September, from 9.30 pm to 2 am
Presale: EUR 4, incl. 1/2 liter sangria
At the door: EUR 4, no free drink
Tickets available from Tuesday till Thursday from 12 pm till 5 pm at the Student Service Centre.

More information: Spanish Serenades in […]

Spanish expat Diana Berdun explains why meeting the “Tuna Universitaria de Maastricht” immediately made her feel at home in the Netherlands. [continued…]

Dutch society is changing in many respects. Many of these changes are remarkable from a historical or European perspective, while in other areas there is continuity.
Manifest involvement
Involvement in society is growing, the quality of social relationships is evolving. Citizens trust individuals and institutions more and have become more politically active. At the same time […]

Mortality in the Netherlands continued to fall in the first six months of 2007. Despite the ageing of the Dutch population, mortality has decreased annually since 2002. Such a long period of declining mortality has not occurred in the past century.
Risk of dying drops by a quarter among young people
The risk of dying has […]

The exhibition, ‘Rubens, a Genius at Work’, opens September 14 and will run through January 27, 2008. The exhibition includes works from the museum’s collections as well as paintings and drawings on loan from foreign museums.
The exhibition comprises some 50 works by the baroque artist that are already in Belgium.
About 60 paintings […]

On September 28, the Development Policy Review Network is organising the seminar ‘Development Cooperation: Does more mean better’. Hosts of the meeting are ECDPM, European Centre of Development Policy Management, and CIDIN, the Centre for International Development Issues, Nijmegen.
For registration and information see http://www.dprn.nl.
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First event in the 2007/8 series of Maastricht Debates
On November 14, 7.30 pm a public debate will take place on the interrelated issues of energy and international power relations. The debate will be with Michael Klare, author of a.o. Blood and Oil, Professor of Peace and Security Studies at the Hampshire College (USA). Michael Klare […]

Three months on from elections, Belgium is still struggling to form a new government, as Flemish and French-speaking parties remain at odds about the need for far-reaching state reforms – including the highly sensitive issue of devolution.
The Flemish side wants more powers for the regions, something the French side fears is a cover for […]

The feelings have angst in society have ebbed away, the Volkskrant reports. The economic and political malaise that dominated in 2005 has not persisted. The Social and Cultural Planning Bureau (SCP) concluded this in its trend report this week.
The Netherlands has emerged from the pessimism of the Fortuyn era much more quickly than expected.
This is […]

Integration Minister Ella Vogelaar yesterday ushered in the Islamic fasting month by opening the Ramadan Festival in Amsterdam.
In Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Muslims and non-Muslims came together to eat with one another and listen to music, ushering in the first day of the Islamic fasting month which goes on until mid-October. The Arab Orchestra […]

Conservative (VVD) leader Mark Rutte has broken with Rita Verdonk. She is now likely to start her own party and cause major changes in the polls.
Rutte announced yesterday in a statement: “There was no confidence any more that things would work out again between her and the MPs. Too often has Verdonk damaged the party […]