Meuse-Rhine Euregion

The location and focus of the Sustainable Summer School is a historical region known as the Meuse-Rhine Euregion. This cultural region is home to almost 4 million residents in Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands. The Euregion is home to several important cities including Maastricht, Liège, Genk and Hasselt, the three case study sites for the Sustainable Summer School.

The Meuse-Rhine Euregion shares an industrial (coal)mining history. An infrastructure of railways and canals had been built to facilitate the mining industry. Most changes took place at social level due to the influx of foreign workers to take up jobs in the mines. Workers from Poland, Italy, Morocco, Spain, etc. brought different nationalities, religions, languages and traditions together. The mines were slowly closing down from the early 1960's until the 1980's.

The Euregion deals with a number of complex problems that arose after the mines were closed down: the heavy industries that are gradually disappearing and demanding a new economic direction, the ageing of the population and constantly widening generation gap, the ‘brain drain’ of young talent. Moreover different languages and many different cultures all living in close proximity to one another. This means that the people are used to crossing boundaries metaphorically in the diversity of population, as well as the small scale landscape joining three countries.

Recent projects in the Euregion focus on trans-border collaboration to develop and enhance an new identity shared by the residents of these differents cities and countries. The three case studies tackled during the Sustainable Summer School are issues that came along with its history and shared identity of old mining industry. Old mining areas deal with soil sinking. To prevent the area from being flood the water is pumped to nearby canals. An historical city area dealing with vacancy and financial problems but has potential due to the young citizens. The burgundy lifestyle embracing food, but why do local food system collapse? The topics of water, food and public space in its site specific context will be recaptured in order to come up with new sustainable solutions.