Peter Hansen - The Economic Board Arnhem-Nijmegen, DE

The Economic Board Arnhem-Nijmegen participated in the II call for proposals of the initiative b-solutions submitting the  Advice Case “Dutch-German cross-border employment of students originally from outside the EU”. Peter Hansen, the expert selected by the Association of the European Border Regions, investigated the main obstacles preventing non-EU students to access the labour market in the cross-border area between Germany and the Netherlands despite possessing degrees released by university located in the region.

Hansen observed that non-EU nationals have difficulties in being hired by companies across the border especially because of overcomplicated national administrative requirements and the lack of provisions regulating specific cases in cross-border contexts.

The consequent solution proposed is divided into two specific measures:

• thesimplification and thus the acceleration of the current procedures to hire non-EU citizens by introducing a “positive list” of degrees possessed by the non-EU nationals and released by universities located in the region;
• the elaboration and implementation of a joint action plan to coordinate the issuing of working permits involving all the relevant actors placed on the German-Dutch border.

To read the detailed analysis of the Advice Case download here the full report prepared by Peter Hansen.

The information here provided have been developed in the framework of b-solutions, an initiative of the European Comission’s DG REGIO managed by the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR).

The reports here included are the result of a consultation provided by legal/cross-border cooperation experts on obstacles of a legal or administrative nature– referred to as Advice Cases - selected in the framework of the II Call for Proposals of the initiative b-solutions.