News & Events

Benelux and North Rhine-Westphalia will be jointly present at Velocity in Leipzig from 9 to 12 May with a stand to make their initiatives visible. Boosting bicycle use is one of the five flagship projects of the Benelux cooperation in 2023. At the end of last year, Benelux countries and North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) launched a joint BikeRoadmap containing new initiatives to stimulate bicycle use and serving as a blueprint for the European Union. With this, Benelux and NRW also demonstrate their ambition to further strengthen themselves as cycling hotspot within Europe. This Roadmap is the result of one of the action points within the Benelux Cycling Declaration of 2020, which was adopted in a European Cycling Declaration of 2022. The Bicycle Roadmap should lead to citizens using bicycles more, as this has positive effects. This was revealed in a study that came out based on both regions. 2024 may be declared the 'European Year of Cycling'. That year, the global cycling conference VeloCity will take place in the Benelux region, specifically in the city of Ghent (BE).

The second meeting of the strategic High Level Group with the Benelux Directors-General Environment/Air Quality was held with North Rhine-Westphalia represented as an observer.

Khattabi Zakia, Minister of Climate, Environment, Sustainable Development and the Green Deal of the Federal Government of Belgium posted on LinkedIn the confirmation of the approved Federal Energy and Climate Plan by the Council of Ministers.

The Rijn-Maas Forum took place on the 12th of April. The Benelux Union was present in moderating a panel and presenting the sustainable mobility projects within the Benelux.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published their new assessment report on their website.

Europe to guide the Benelux Directors' Consultation on Nature, Hunting and Forests