Crossing the border between the Netherlands and Germany without problems is important for our economy. Therefore, the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and five Dutch provinces have renewed their agreements on traffic and transport. The new agreements were signed on June 6, 2025, in Den Bosch.
The Netherlands and North Rhine-Westphalia are each others main trading partners. They are strongly connected, both logistically and economically. To maintain the cooperation on cross-border mobility at a good level, new agreements have been made. A new Joint Declaration has been drawn up. Five provinces (Gelderland, Limburg, North Brabant, Overijssel, and South Holland) and the Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Transport of North Rhine-Westphalia signed this declaration.
Importance of Cooperation
For deputy Frederik Zevenbergen (traffic, transport, and public transport), the closer cooperation is of great importance: “We share many ambitions with North Rhine-Westphalia, such as smart and clean mobility. There are great opportunities in both countries and in Brussels. By working together and learning from each other, we simply make progress.”
The North Rhine-Westphalian Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Transport, Oliver Krischer, emphasizes this importance: “The cooperation with our Dutch partner provinces is growing and brings benefits to both parties. Together, we carry out projects along important European transport corridors, exchange experiences, and advocate for our interests in sustainable, climate-friendly freight and passenger transport.”
Four Pillars
The renewed joint declaration is based on four pillars:
- Cross-border mobility
- Development of corridors
- Learning from and with each other
- Joint advocacy
Within pillar 1, the parties aim to organize infrastructure and services for cross-border mobility at least as well as within national borders. Barriers caused by the border must be further reduced.
In pillar 2, work is being done on efficient, sustainable, and climate-friendly freight and passenger transport over longer distances. Europe has long transport corridors. For the cooperation between Germany and the Netherlands, the North Sea-Baltic corridor and the North Sea-Rhine-Mediterranean corridor are important. This concerns good international road and rail connections, but also inland shipping, for example, on the Rhine.
The third pillar is based on the exchange of experiences, good practices, successful implementation of prerequisites, and lessons learned, also in contact with other European regions and networks.
New in the cooperation is specific attention to joint advocacy in the fourth pillar. Policies made in The Hague and in Berlin or by European countries together (Brussels) affect the regions. To ensure that regional interests are well considered there, the partners will jointly explain their interests in those places. By working together – also with other parties in Europe – contributions are made to strengthening the transport corridors.
The cooperation between Dutch provinces and North Rhine-Westphalia in the field of mobility, traffic, and logistics has existed since 2006. The previous joint declaration was drawn up in 2018 and was due for renewal. Based on the experiences of recent years, a further step is now being taken in cross-border mobility.