Meuse–Rhine Euroregion

Meuse–Rhine Euregion
Type Euroregion
Membership
Establishment 1976
Area
   Total 11,000 km2
4,247 sq mi
Population
   estimate 3,900,000
Map of the Meuse-Rhine Euregion showing the Region of Aachen (red); the southern part of Dutch Limburg (blue); Belgian Limburg (light green); the Province of Liège (mid-green); and the German-speaking Community of Belgium (dark green).

The Meuse–Rhine Euregion (Dutch: Euregio Maas–Rijn, French: Eurorégion Meuse–Rhin, German: Euregio Maas–Rhein, Limburgish: Euregio Maas–Rien) is a Euroregion created in 1976, with judicial status achieved in 1991. It comprises 11.000 km² and has around 3.9 million inhabitants around the city-corridor of AachenMaastrichtHasseltLiège. The seat of the region has been in Eupen, Belgium since 1 January 2007. Within a wider context, the region is part of what is called the Blue Banana European urbanisation corridor.

Governmental areas

The Meuse–Rhine Euregion comprises:

Languages

The official languages of the three countries involved in the Euregion are Dutch (in Belgium and the Netherlands), French (in Belgium) and German (in Belgium and Germany). Regional languages are also spoken namely Limburgish (which is recognised as a regional language in Dutch Limburg), Ripuarian and Walloon. The intra-cultural aspect of the Limburgish and Ripuarian is that they are spoken on both sides of the border. Limburgish, although only recognised as such in The Netherlands, is also spoken in Belgian Limburg and North Rhine-Westphalia. Ripuarian is also spoken on both sides of the Dutch/German-border, but with the extra trait of having the same variant spoken on both sides of the border.

See also

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, October 30, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.