Waiting lists for Dutch students with behavioural disorders
June 30, 2006 Leave a Comment
Dutch schools for children with behavioural disorders can no longer meet demand, and have been forced to put more than 1,200 children on waiting lists. An increasing number of students are being referred to these schools from pre-vocational secondary education. The schools are underfunded and lack sufficient staff and classrooms. The education ministry does not [...]
EUR 100m for better teachers
June 30, 2006 Leave a Comment
Education Minister Maria van der Hoeven announced on Friday she is making EUR 100 million extra available to help improve the quality of education at primary and secondary school level. The money will be used to train more teachers and give more support to trainee teachers. Source: Expatica Netherlands, 30 June 2006
PM wants temporary minority government ahead of elections
June 30, 2006 Leave a Comment
Premier Jan Peter Balkenende on Friday offered the resignation of his cabinet to Queen Beatrix. He advised the formation of a temporary minority coalition with full status. On Thursday, the cabinet concluded that remaining in government was impossible. After the smallest centre-left D66 coalition partner had withdrawn its support to the cabinet, the D66 ministers [...]
Members of Dutch government offer to resign
June 30, 2006 Leave a Comment
On Thursday 29 June, the three members of the Dutch coalition government belonging to the D66 party resigned from office. This led the other ministers and state secretaries to tender their positions to the Queen. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende announced the decision in parliament on Thursday night. On 28 June, the House of Representatives [...]
Brussels unveils plan to use fingerprints on EU passports
June 29, 2006 Leave a Comment
The European Commission on Thursday (29 June) unveiled technical details of a new type of biometric data to be used in EU citizens’ passports. Along with facial features that must be part of newly issued travel documents by late August, member states will be obliged to issue passports with two fingerprints by 2009. Brussels points [...]
Dutch cabinet falls
June 29, 2006 Leave a Comment
The Dutch centre-right cabinet of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has fallen. In a short statement to parliament, the prime minister said all ministers are offering their resignation. Mr Balkenende will probably submit his resignation to Queen Beatrix on Friday. Earlier, the smallest Dutch coalition party D66 withdrew its support for the cabinet because of [...]
“Chocolate Factory” theme park to open in Amsterdam
June 29, 2006 Leave a Comment
Amsterdam will get a theme park dedicated to chocolate and inspired by Roald Dahl’s children’s book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, city officials and entrepreneurs said on Thursday. Just like Dahl’s fictional “Chocolate Factory” owned by Willy Wonka, the main part of the “sweets park” will be located underground, in a disused railway tunnel which [...]
New rules for processing personal data
June 29, 2006 Leave a Comment
The Dutch police will get more powers to process personal data. The current rules will be relaxed and will be more geared to day-to-day practice. More clarity will be provided and a number of rules will be scrapped to reduce the administrative burden on the police, according to a Bill submitted to the Lower House [...]
Employers largely unaware of whistleblower’s code of conduct
June 29, 2006 Leave a Comment
Most employers are not aware of the whistleblower’s code of conduct. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment recently ordered a study into the matter. The report shows that the majority of companies are generally unaware of the code of conduct but most of them do have provisions for people wanting to report abuses. Minister [...]
UNICEF chooses Maastricht for ambitious learning programme
June 29, 2006 Leave a Comment
Maastricht Graduate School of Governance has been selected by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for an ambitious assignment. As part of UNICEF’s commitment to support high-impact approaches to achieve sustainable results for children, more than 300 senior UNICEF staff will take on cutting edge issues in public policy, advocacy and partnerships at the Maastricht Graduate [...]
Dutch government coalition may collapse
June 29, 2006 Leave a Comment
The Dutch government coalition is in danger of collapsing after the Democrat coalition party D66 supported a vote of censure against Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk. The minister came under fire recently when she revoked the citizinship of MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali after she admitted to having used a false name and date of birth when [...]
France, Netherlands, Germany top list of European health care quality
June 29, 2006 1 Comment
Western Europe – mainly France, the Netherlands and Germany – scores best in providing high quality, patient-friendly health services according to report by the Health Consumer Powerhouse, a Stockholm-based think-tank pressing for better healthcare. But the Irish health care service lies at the bottom of the table, followed only by Lithuania. While most new EU [...]
Ayaan Hirsi Ali “did receive Dutch nationality”
June 29, 2006 Leave a Comment
An investigation has shown that Somali law permitted Ayaan Hirsi Ali to use the name ‘Ali’. Minister Rita Verdonk therefore concludes that Ms Hirsi Ali ‘did indeed correctly receive Dutch nationality’. Background On 11 May 2006, in the TV programme Zembla, the former MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali said that her real name and date of [...]
Bodies of missing girls found in Liège
June 29, 2006 Leave a Comment
The bodies of both the missing step-sisters, Stacey and Nathalie, have been found. The remains of 7-year-old Stacy were the first to be discovered near a railway line, close to where the two girls were last seen. The body of her 10-year-old step-sister, Nathalie, was found nearby, later on Wednesday afternoon. The two girls went [...]
Dutch organisation: Mondiaal Centrum presents…
June 28, 2006 1 Comment
“United Colors of Maastricht”
Together with a group of 18 enthusiastic international volunteers and trainees, Denise Maas, coordinator of Mondiaal Centrum Maastricht, works on various projects to integrate foreigners of every origin (or “allochtonen” as the Dutch say) into Dutch society and to bring them into contact with local people (or “autochtonen”). [continued...]
Ayaan Hirsi Ali can retain Dutch passport
June 28, 2006 Leave a Comment
The Dutch cabinet has agreed that the former MP of Somali descent Ayaan Hirsi Ali can retain her Dutch citizenship. Last month, Integration Minister Rita Verdonk ruled Ms Hirsi Ali had never held Dutch nationality because she had not given her full name on an application for citizenship. Parliament was furious with the integration minister [...]
Maastricht postpones ‘coffee shop’ plan
June 28, 2006 Leave a Comment
The Dutch city of Maastricht has postponed its controversial decision to move its ‘coffee shops’ closer to the Dutch-Belgian border. The Dutch government has decided it will investigate the matter further following loud protests from Belgium in recent weeks. Full article: Expatica Belgium, 27 June 2006
EUR 50 million for after-school childcare
June 26, 2006 Leave a Comment
All primary schools will receive a fixed grant and sum per pupil this year to support after-school care, Education Minister Maria van der Hoeven said on Monday. This will cost a total of EUR 50 million. The schools will have to have programmes in place to care for children before and after school hours in [...]
Finland to boost innovation during EU Presidency
June 26, 2006 Leave a Comment
Finland has announced its priorities for research and innovation during its Presidency of the EU, to start on 1 July: concluding negotiations on the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7); and developing a broad-based innovation policy. The Presidency will kick-off its six months at the helm of the EU with an informal Competitiveness Council on 10 and [...]
Naturalised Dutch left out of Integration Act for now
June 25, 2006 Leave a Comment
The Lower House has agreed not to include naturalised Dutch citizens in the Integration Act for now. This means the act can come into force on schedule on 1 January 2007. A stalemate arose on naturalised citizens last week because the envisaged integration requirement could discriminate against foreigners who have a Dutch passport. Emergency advice [...]
No decision yet over Hirsi Ali’s naturalisation
June 25, 2006 Leave a Comment
Expectations that a decision had been made on whether Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Dutch citizen were dashed on Friday. Ministers didn’t even discuss the issue during their weekly cabinet meeting. Immigration and Integration Minister Rita Verdonk said afterwards that the investigation is continuing. [...] Broadcaster RTL reported earlier in this week that [...]
25 June-26 August: The Great Wave off Kanagawa and other Japanese woodblock prints at Centre Céramique
June 24, 2006 Leave a Comment
‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’ is perhaps the most famous Japanese print ever made. A large version of this print by Katsushika Hokusai is among the collection of Japanese woodblock prints of Centre Céramique. Apart from ‘The Great Wave’, Centre Céramique has selected 45 other sheets from this collection for its summer exhibition. Drama, melancholy, [...]
Japan’s Crown Prince planning Dutch holiday with family
June 23, 2006 Leave a Comment
Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito, his wife Crown Princess Masako and their daughter Princess Aiko will spend their summer holidays in the Netherlands, the Imperial Household Agency announced Friday. The family is expected to visit the country for several weeks in mid to late August. Details of the trip will be finalized after consultations with the [...]
Screening instrument predicts prolonged sickness absence
June 23, 2006 Leave a Comment
ABN AMRO Occupational Health Services and the University of Maastricht have together developed a screening instrument capable of predicting prolonged sickness absence. This instrument, known as the ‘Balance Meter’, has been externally validated in a study conducted among 10,000 ABN AMRO employees. The study shows that the Balance Meter is indeed capable of predicting which [...]
More second generation mothers go back to work
June 23, 2006 Leave a Comment
Women in the Netherlands with a non-western foreign background are more likely to stop work when they have their first child than native Dutch women. This is true for both the first and the second generation. Second generation women with a foreign background are more likely to go back to work than first generation women, [...]
Working until 65 rather unpopular
June 23, 2006 Leave a Comment
In 2005 about four in ten employees felt able to continue their current job until they reach the age of 65. Only two in ten employees actually want to continue working until this age. Employees in construction and hotels often don’t feel able to continue Employees working in construction and in hotels and restaurants feel [...]
Academic censorship in the Netherlands?
June 23, 2006 Leave a Comment
From today’s edition of the Radio Netherlands Press Review: The issue of academic freedom is at the heart of a new controversy here in the Netherlands, surrounding the farewell speech of a retiring professor of theology at the University of Utrecht. As Trouw explains in detail, Professor Pieter van der Horst was told to scrap [...]
“The EU’s financing of scientific research is disastrous”: Dutch scientist
June 23, 2006 Leave a Comment
Ronald Plasterk is one of Holland’s top scientists. In his regular column in De Volkskrant, he writes today of the need to pool talent into excellent research institutes. “You would think the European Union could offer a solution here, but our experience with the EU’s financing of scientific research is disastrous”, he says. Plasterk describes [...]
EU plans to increase Erasmus grants
June 23, 2006 Leave a Comment
The European Commission is considering giving more money to students participating in the Erasmus student exchange programme, a move expected to increase the number of people taking part in the scheme. “After a long and steady decline, the average grant rose for the first time to €140 per month of community funding in 2004/2005. And [...]
Dutch shy away from further legalization of soft drugs
June 23, 2006 Leave a Comment
The Netherlands will not experiment for the time being with the full legalization of the cultivation and sale of soft drugs. The Dutch parliament, which was originally in favour of the plan, has now rejected it. The possession of soft drugs – such as marijuana and hashish – is tolerated, although their cultivation and sale [...]
