European democracy can only advance locally – not isolated in Brussels

Why is Maastricht such a unique place? Let’s start by looking at the facts. The majority of our students does not speak Dutch. About one third of our residents shares a non-Dutch background. Moreover, Maastricht’s Euregion Meuse-Rhine is a dense area, comprising Maastricht in the Netherlands, Aachen in Germany and Liège and Hasselt in Belgium. Altogether, the region has a population of roughly 3.9 million, similar to the size of the Dutch “Randstad”.

Centrally located inside the Eindhoven-Cologne-Brussels triangle, Maastricht is inherently part of Europe’s economic engine. The latest available data of Eurostat convincingly shows that annual patent applications in this Triangle overshadow the afore-mentioned Randstad area. The numbers speak for themselves: our city’s future isn’t so much linked to the Netherlands as it is to Europe.

Maastricht University understood this in the early 2000s already. In 1992, Maastricht became the scenery for the official birth of the European Union. From the early 2000s onwards, the/our city's university built upon that by creating/adding an academic dimension to European integration. From law to politics and from economics to medicine, a rich variety of EU-focused educational programmes - all taught in English - was initiated.

Then why are local politicians still denying this reality? The answer is simple: political parties are either nationally or locally organised – pretending the world ends beyond our country’s borders, or even beyond the city limits.

Nation-gazing is apparent everywhere in our political system. Public transport, for instance, treats Maastricht as a Dutch suburb. Amsterdam – 250 km away – is connected with Maastricht by trains, leaving every 15 minutes. Yet trains to Liège (25 km) and Aachen (42 km) depart only once every hour. Brussels and Cologne take an hour by car. By train, however, Cologne-Maastricht takes a staggering 2.5 hour – if you’re lucky. Graduated students may plan to work in Amsterdam and live in Rotterdam (or vice versa)  quite easily.  Doing the same between Maastricht and nearby European cities, however, is unfortunately still unattainable.

We don’t seem to be taught much about our university in our own schools, either. Talented local pupils are simply told to move to Amsterdam afterwards. Young people are barely prepared to participate in our local economy, as we don’t teach children French or German from a young age. Unless, of course, you go to a Belgian school, something that, not coincidentally, the majority of Maastricht’s starting pupils did a few years ago.

Moreover, international students do not get enough opportunities to learn Dutch either. They often only take a basic course, just enough to manage doing groceries at Albert Heijn. And if you do decide to take such a course, your university credits won’t be converted automatically. This way, learning Dutch means even more study pressure than you already have. It seems as if we tell internationals that they’d better leave after graduating. Meanwhile, the city council complains that students rarely stay in our city. And still, we don’t seem to understand why waiters in restaurants only speak English to us.

We have to open up the political system in our city. For that, we need to accept two fundamental realities. Firstly, Maastricht may be seen as a Dutch outskirt, but it is, in fact, located in the heart of Europe. Secondly, if we really want to take care of all our residents, we are politically responsible to connect them. Only then will we be able to listen to the voices unheard. It is for this reason that the student housing crisis has plagued our city for almost a decade.

Volt is the party that can fulfill these promises. We are the first pan-European party to be represented in Aachen, Brussels, and Cologne. We can build bridges from Maastricht to Europe. But to build these bridges, we first need to strengthen the ties among the young Europeans of this city. That means you and me. That is why we ask you to use your right as a Maastricht resident to vote. Your right to co-shape our common future.

Wherever you may be in a few years from now – be it in Maastricht or any place else in Europe – remember that we will always value openness, progress, equal opportunities and interculturality. We hope you share these values, too. We are striving for the same European values everywhere. From Sofia to Cologne, and from Sicily to Hammerfest.

The European Union was founded in Maastricht in 1992. Now it’s time to build a European democracy. Our European democracy doesn’t rise in the institutions of Brussels. It rises locally, in our communities. Vote. So we can build a common future.