Integration Minister Ella Vogelaar is paying damages to the language institutes that were to teach Dutch to thousands of immigrants. Because the integration requirement is effectively non-existent, they threaten to go bankrupt.
The previous cabinet, under pressure from Vogelaar’s predecessor Rita Verdonk, decided that around 500,000 people would have to have Dutch lessons in the coming […]

Digital Audio Guide:
Zicht op Maastricht Mobile invites visitors to take a walk through Maastricht with a new free digital audio guide available in Dutch, English, French or German:
“Discover Maastricht with your PDA, Smartphone, MP3 Player or iPod. Watch the presentations and listen to audio clips in the unique places of the city. Determine your own […]

Interested in learning Dutch, English or other languages? Please have a look at our new page with links to various language courses in the region.
The list of languages courses has been kindly provided by the Limburg Development Company LIOF.
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The majority of Dutch people who go abroad to study don’t want to come back to the Netherlands. Is the country suffering from a brain drain?
Adventure, a different culture, better job prospects or a higher quality of education. Dutch students choose to do their Bachelor’s or Master’s degree abroad for a wide range of reasons. […]

An overwhelming majority of Dutch MPs have voted in favour of the compromise proposal on testing embryos for hereditary diseases. Earlier the issue caused a crisis in the Dutch cabinet when Deputy Health Minister Jet Bussemaker tried to expand the practice, only to be blocked by the smallest coalition party, the Christian Union.
Last week, the […]

Every Sunday TV Brussel broadcasts a special lifestyle programme aimed at the international community in the Belgian capital.
Brussels International goes out on Sunday at 6:15 PM and is repeated until Monday evening.
The programme is in English, but focuses on the rich diversity of the international community in Brussels.
Source: Flanders.be, 1 July 2008
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A tobacco smoking ban has come into effect in cafes, bars and restaurants in the Netherlands.
The country is following a growing trend across Europe and the world of bans on smoking in public places.
Pro-smoking lobbyists say the ban will lead to a drop in business, but others say any losses will be made […]

The cabinet will grant a loan of 7 million euros to the International Campus Eindhoven. This completes the financing of the new international school.
The international school will be housed in the former Constant Rebecque barracks. The total investment is 32.5 million euros, which will primarily be provided by the Eindhoven local authority. Neighbouring municipalities and […]

The number of smokers in the Netherlands has fallen by 17 percent since the year 2000. But sales of cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco (’shag’) increased by one quarter.
At the end of 2007 just over one quarter of the Dutch population (aged 12 years and older) were smokers, or 3.7 million people. This was down from […]

Less than half of the 55-64 year olds in the Netherlands have paid work. The situation is however improving, the Social and Cultural Planning Bureau (SCP) concludes in a report presented yesterday.
“Participation in paid work by 55-64 year olds rose between 2003 and 2006 from 43.3 percent to 46.7 percent. If the increase in participation […]

From Radio Netherlands Press Review of 23 June 2008:
Some people believe that a major worldwide catastrophe will destroy civilisation in 2012. This weekend’s de Volkskrant wrote about the thousands of people in the Netherlands who believe in an impending apocalypse in 2012 (the number of believers is many times larger in the United States and […]

A report by the Verwij-Jonker Institute at the University of Utrecht concludes that the likelihood of a child becoming involved in crime is often determined more by the neighbourhood in which he or she grows up than by the ethnic origins of the parents.
The researchers found that children growing up in neighbourhoods with much crime […]

Sources in the Dutch government say the Cabinet has reached a compromise in the question of an expansion of embryo testing during in vitro fertilisation by the Maastricht University Medical Centre. A committee of medical experts will be set up which will make assessments on an individual basis.
The controversy started at the end of last […]

NIS News reports that the Expatcenter Amsterdam Area was opened yesterday at Amsterdam’s World Trade Center.
For more information, check:
Expat Center
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A majority of the Dutch is against the Treaty of Lisbon, according to a poll by Maurice de Hond. But the Netherlands is going ahead with its ratification.
If the Netherlands were to hold a referendum now on the new EU treaty, 54 percent would vote against it, De Hond reported. He polled the views of […]

One Dutch person out of five would prefer to live in Flanders than in the Netherlands. The feeling is not mutual, though, as barely one Fleming in 20 would prefer to move to the Netherlands, a survey held by the Belgian newspaper De Standaard shows.
When asked where they would prefer to live (the Netherlands or […]

Nearly 6 in 10 of the Dutch population say they are religious. Only very few of them go to church, to a mosque or other religious assemblies every week, however.
Nearly six out of ten Dutch are religious
In 2005/2006, 58 percent of Dutch people said they belonged to a religion or believed in a certain ideology. […]

Rembrandt van Rijn, the most famous Dutch artist of the 17th century, enjoyed international fame in his final years. Newly discovered documents in the city of Genoa reveal that Rembrandt received a commission to adorn two altarpieces for a wealthy Italian nobleman, just three years before his death. The letters give a new insight into […]

The free newspaper Metro reports on a convention held last week at Maastricht University, where the crème de la crème of specialists in robotics met to discuss the latest developments in their field. The paper writes:
“What would the world be like if we had someone who followed our every order and cooked for us, washed […]

Labour party leader Wouter Bos told delegates to the party congress on Saturday that integrating newcomers into Dutch society will be his priority, according to press reports.
‘It is the key to winning back the hearts of the people,’ he said.
Bos said that the building of mosques, training imams and Muslims working in the caring professions […]

The government has set aside €11m to fund a new experiment to get older immigrants speaking Dutch.
The cash is to be used to couple immigrants with a native Dutch person to boost their knowledge of the language.
Some 500,000 people do not speak adequate Dutch, integration minister Ella Vogelaar says.
Source: DutchNews.nl, 16 June 2008
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Japanese ‘knowledge employees’ are to have a special desk at the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND). This has been promised by Economic Affairs Minister Maria van der Hoeven in meetings with Japanese companies in Tokyo.
“Employees of Japanese companies that want to visit the Netherlands often have to go through very complicated procedures. This is a […]

The Expat TV Show is a brand new weekly series to be broadcast later this year.
A full website will follow with lots of new features including the possibility to view past episodes and the ability to podcast so you can watch your favourite bits whilst travelling or on the way to work.
The first episode […]

The Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade, Frank Heemskerk, has called on telecommunications companies to lower the rates of text-messaging between European states. In Tuesday’s parliament, he referred to the findings of telecom watchdog, Opta, which reveal that the average price of sending an international text-message in Europe is 35 cents, compared to a steep 51 […]

Last year, 7 percent of the Dutch population consulted alternative healers, e.g. homoeopathists, acupuncturists, natural healers, magnetic or paranormal healers. If GPs practising alternative treatment methods are included, the rate rises to 11 percent. In 1981, only 4 percent in the Dutch population put their trust in alternative healers.
Middle-aged (age category 45–65) individuals are keen […]

Studying music in Maastricht, a video report by Europocket TV at Conservatorium Maastricht. Includes interviews with foreign students.
Source: Europocket TV, May 2008
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The government is to invest an extra €50m in attracting high-income tourists to the Netherlands, junior economic affairs minister Frank Heemskerk announced on Monday.
In particular, the ‘new business elite’ in China and India are being targeted. ‘They are the ones who decide where to locate a new company and they are the ones with the […]

The Dutch parliament is due to convene an emergency meeting Thursday to debate whether Dutch hospitals may screen embryos resulting from IVF treatment for certain genetic diseases, reports said Wednesday.
After screening, only those embryos free of the gene that may later cause a person to develop the disease will be implanted in the uterus.
The emergency […]

Deputy Prime Minister André Rouvoet is furious at the decision by Maastricht Academic Hospital to continue screening embryos for the gene that causes breast cancer. In the television programme Nova, the Christian Union leader said that the matter should first be debated in the cabinet.
The Christian Democrats are also annoyed with the hospital’s decision. Christian […]

Bus services over much of the country were paralysed on Monday as regional bus drivers continued their indefinite strike in support of a 3.5% pay claim.
The strike began on Sunday and means that no Arriva, Veolia and Connexxion buses are operating in most parts of the country. Services are continuing in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The […]