EU Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini is working on measures intended to raise the number of skilled workers emigrating to Europe. He wants to introduce a simple temporary work permit for non-Europeans, a so-called blue card. Mr Frattini says that 85 percent of unskilled workers emigrate to the European Union compared to only five percent […]

Parents should be able to tax deduct school fees if their children attend schools in another EU member state, the European Court of Justice has ruled.
The EU’s highest court ruled on Tuesday (11 September) that the German tax law of only allowing tax deduction for parents who send their kids to certified private schools in […]

On September 12, the annual MSM Graduation Ceremony will take place at the premises of Maastricht School of Management. On this occasion, the degrees of Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Philosophy (M. Phil.) and Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) will be awarded to the graduates from over 30 countries.

Albania, Austria, Bhutan, Bolivia, P.R. […]

Dutch scientists have discovered bacteria that thrive in oxygen starved environments might be useful in delivering gene therapy to cancer patients.
The researchers, led by Jan Theys of Maastricht University, have used such bacteria to successfully target cancer tumors in patients for which traditional treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy are ineffective.
“To target a tumor with […]

Young Dutch Labour politician Eshan Jami has established a Committee of ex-Muslims in the Netherlands to support those who have renounced Islam.
22-year-old Jami held a press conference on Tuesday - the sixth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York - to announce the birth of the committee.
There’s been an intense […]

A U.S. citizen who hoped to punish the Netherlands for its government’s support of the war in Iraq has confessed to axing a 22-year-old Dutch student to death after failing to find a soldier to kill, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Read full story: AP via ABC News, 12 September 2007
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During the opening of the academic year, last Monday, Kaleidoscope, an international student association for gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender and like-minded students, won the Student Prize 2007. The association received the prize because since its foundation in 2006 it has organised a wide range of activities for gay and bi-sexual students at Maastricht University. The […]

Maastricht University’s Psychology programme is the first Dutch programme to be ranked by the German Centre for Higher Education Development (Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung, CHE). UM’s scores in the various areas, as well as its overall score as an academic institution, place it in the top ranking group of all universities assessed. The Dean of the […]

The Netherlands wants asylum policy in the EU countries to be further dovetailed among them. “The cabinet has as its goal a single European asylum procedure and asylum status in 2010,” say Justice State Secretary Nebahat Albayrak and Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen in a letter to parliament.
“A clear European asylum policy is necessary according to […]

Another drug den was raided in Veldwezelt, a sub-municipality of Lanaken, last Friday, the sixth in a few months’ time. The Belgian province of Limburg seems to be becoming home to more and more Dutch drug runners.
Read full article: Expatica Belgium, 10 September 2007
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Deputy Education Minister Sharon Dijkstra wants to draw up a plan together with primary schools to improve standards in reading, writing and arithmetic. Canadian education specialist Michael Fullan has been asked to assist. He believes there is a need for better analysis of the existing tests of pupils’ calculating and language skills. The results can […]

With two-thirds of the Dutch population living below sea level, the country’s government sees the risk of rising seas caused by global warming as a matter of life and death. So it’s taking a long term view of the problem — a two hundred-year view, to be exact.
The Cabinet announced plans Friday for a new […]

If you worship at the altar of grand design, this is one church you’ll want to visit.
The aesthetics of the Kruisherenhotel in many ways mirror its location. Maastricht is your typical Dutch city, with cobblestone streets and 17th-century shops and town houses. But cross one of the two bridges spanning the Maas River, and examples […]

Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos unveiled a two-year action plan aimed at enhancing the international competitiveness of the Dutch financial industry by improving regulations, improving education and research facilities and exploring niche markets.
The plan aims to turn the tide after the Netherlands lost business in the past few decades to London, specialist centres such as […]

Guilt, as well as lack of child care, stops Dutch women working more
A housing crisis is shaking America, but some Dutch property is doing well. Churches, scouting clubs, greenhouses, empty offices, prefabricated containers—anything with a roof and running water is being feverishly sought out by schools. Since last month, in a new effort to get […]

University chiefs face a ceiling on their salaries to make sure they do not earn more than the prime minister, education minister Ronald Plasterk said at the opening of the academic year in Utrecht on Monday.
‘You are appointed by me, you work with my confidence and I assume that we will work together to implement […]

One child in five will be obese in the Netherlands by 2015, according to a study carried out by the Nicis research institute in the country’s major cities, the Dutch news agency ANP reported Tuesday.
Fewer than 10 percent of children in primary school manage to average half an hour exercise a day. Among teenagers, […]

Endemol, the developer of Big Brother, has this week started to produce daily user-generated TV news shows. The daily half-hour programmes - called IK OP TV (Me on TV) - debuted this week on seven regional TV channels in Holland. Endemol is working in partnership with Dutch citizen journalism service Skoeps on the project. The […]

Dutch Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst has opened a trial hotline where people can leave anonymous tip-offs about civil servants engaging in unethical behaviour. The ministers says many people hesitate to report alleged offences through existing channels. She expressed the hope that the hotline will encourage them to come forward. Over the past five years, […]

This year’s edition of Maastricht’s annual gastronomic festival known as “het Preuvenemint” had a special European flavour. To mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which in 1957 established the European Economic Community, and the 15th anniversary of the Treaty of Maastricht, the festival’s theme was entitled “Europe at a table” and each stand was supposed to represent one of the 27 EU countries. But did the festival fulfill its goal? A review by Hania Piotrowska for Crossroads. [continued…]

On Monday, 1 October the first of seven guest speakers of this season, Mr Antony Heywood, shall talk about ‘English Country Dance at the time of Jane Austen’. Anyone who has seen the TV + cinema versions of Jane Austen’s novels will know about the importance of dance in the social life of the day. […]

The VAT rate is going up next year from 19 to 20 percent. Additionally, car-driving will become more expensive, while the very wealthy will be paying much higher property tax. And the controversial pension tax originally planned for 2011 will be introduced in 2010.
The cabinet reached agreement Friday on the budget for 2008. The measures […]