East-Netherlands
East Netherlands
The provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel together constitute East Netherlands. It is a region with great natural beauty, rich cultural history, a diverse industry, three major universities and above all a clear vision of its future. Together with its partners, the Eastern Netherlands provinces strive to be a distinctive and future-oriented region where the living, working, and recreational circumstances are and remain of high quality. To this end, East Netherlands invests in green energy, rural and urban development and strong SMEs. As a border region East Netherlands is a logistical link between the Randstad and the Ruhr.
Innovation plays an important role. In 2015, the region aims to be among the top five regions in the world in terms of knowledge and economic activities around nutrition, health care and technology. For example the so-called ‘New Triangle,’ which is an intensive cooperation between universities in Nijmegen, Wageningen and Enschede and business. This collaboration enables innovative ideas to find their way to marketable applications.
East Netherlands in Europe
In the Eastern Netherlands provinces the European dimension is highly apparent. Cross-border cooperation with Germany has been important for over 50 years. An example of this close cooperation is the implementation of a joint cross-border work programme. The collaboration takes shape on a broad range of issues and focuses, for example, on public order and safety, culture and society, mobility and business, but also on all aspects of spatial planning, water and environment. The cross-border cooperation is supported by the European Interreg programme.
The European Union is of great importance to the region. The topical developments in Brussels on key policy areas are closely monitored, such as environment, water, cohesion, climate and energy, innovation and the Lisbon Strategy. Moreover, specific information about the region, which is relevant for the development and evaluation of (European) policy, is distributed.
