Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the mayor of Eindhoven since September 2022, sees his task as “burgemeester” (father citizen) to be focused on enhancing the collaboration and building trust between the various communities, he wants to avoid Eindhoven being a “collection of nationalities”, but aims for it to be a safe city and community for all of us.
Having had various high profile political roles in the past: Minister of Finance (2012-2017) and Chairman of the Eurogroup (2013-2018), Jeroen Dijsselbloem is known for his diplomatic skills and courage not to shy away from talking about the “pink elephant”; he is not new to building bridges and bringing people together, this is a skill he sharpened while dealing with the European bank crises. It now helps him to bring together local representatives and to solve the challenges of the municipalities in the region. He encourages us to search for root causes before we jump to solutions.
Will Brainport continue to grow? What if the economy cools down?
Innovation in Brainport
Huge global transitions are ongoing, and we see the creation of economic blocks. The value generation that can come out these challenges and changes is huge. Are we sufficiently aware of that in Europe? Will we stay relevant?
As we need to organize ourselves better, cooperation among academia, companies and governments, can ASML work in an open innovation environment?
Responsible companies create a safe environment for their employees. ASML wants to take a proactive role in helping governments, be it financially, paying for infrastructure, for building more homes, be it in terms of accelerating paper work. To us, that sounded like the early days of Philips, but Peter Wennink does not want be paternalistic, but a collaboration is the way to approach the challenges at system level. Starting a lab at the university is an example to setting up collaborations.
Politics
Europe does not only have friends in the world. Our role is under economic pressure. Geopolitically, we face military threats. But today I want to go further: will our democracy survive? We are flooded with fake news and deliberate disinformation, We see veto-ers and influencers just for the sake of influencing.
Bram Kamp runs for seat in the European Parliament. In
Brussels, he will feel at home, Bram expects: “Brussels is more about content rather than about show.” Europe sees the importance of technology and innovation but also sees a need to safeguard a strong position.
Volt is a European political party. Can democracy in Europe still work with 27 countries, each of which has a veto right? Bram Kamp nonetheless sees a key role for Europe in combatting climate change, in improving security throughout the region. Every Dutch citizen gains a value of 9000 euro from being in various European cooperations.
For innovation, Brussels is the place to be, rather than The Hague. The European Parliament’s work is more technical and content-driven compared to national levels, and many current EU challenges can be addressed with technology. Erik Becker (VVD) believes the European Parliament needs more tech-savvy members to make smarter decisions.
With a background in engineering and international business, Erik feels at home in the multinational EU environment. He points out that the EU lags behind the US and China in innovation due to overly strict regulations, and argues that innovators need more freedom. Fast tracks for vital sectors, like the Chips Act for semiconductors, are necessary and could benefit defense and healthcare industries as well.
Regarding developments in The Hague, Erik discusses the coalition agreement’s impact on VVD’s work at the European level and within the Renew coalition in the European Parliament.
Anna Koolstra is a policy maker in the Hague, working on afforable housing in the Netherlands. Yet, she sees housing as a European challange. The European parliment can more effectively handle the current housing crisis than a national Dutch government. One million people cannot find a house and sleep on the street. Anna pitches for major revision of the economic powers in real estate on a European level.
Anna runs for the Europen parliament, for the Dutch Groen-Links PvdA party and is the last female name on the list.
A pre-election political debate among Mpanzu Bamenga, D66 (Democratic 66); Jan Joosten, CDA (Christian Democratic Appeal); Judith Tielen, VVD (People’s Party for Liberals and Democracy), Eva de Bruijn, GL-PvdA (Labour and Green left coalition) and Valerie Pajak, Volt (Pan-European political movement), organized by EindhovenNews.com
The debate has four segments that each focus on key topics. The first segment addresses international students, housing, minimum wage and the development of the Brainport region. The second segment will focus on immigration, 30% ruling, and asylum. The third round is dedicated to innovation, sustainability, mobility and security. The final round highlights housing, health insurance and taxation.
Moderator Beena Arunraj, Eindhoven News is joined by Zach Newmark from NL Times, Jean-Paul Linnartz and Robin Pascoe from Dutch News. Dutch News also reports results from a poll among internationals.
Events
Carnaval [link]: Internationals coming to the southern provinces of the Netherlands often are taken by surprise during Carnaval. Crazy days. Suddenly Eindhoven is different from being a hotspot in technology and innovation.
