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Tribunal Euregional network · Maastricht

Title III

The Wennink report, translated for Maastricht

First the foundation: the four domains and four preconditions on which the Wennink report builds tomorrow's prosperity, with what each field means for Maastricht. Then our contribution: five cases for the table, from the Three-Country Train to the Maastricht Valley.

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Part I. The foundation

Eight fields from the Wennink report

The report builds tomorrow's prosperity on four domains in which the Netherlands must invest, and four preconditions that must be in place for that. The fields come from practice: more than thirty consortia and over a thousand experts submitted 51 proposals. For each field you first read what the report says, then what it means for Maastricht, and then where we take it further.

Four domains

Domain · section 4.2

Digitalisation and AI

The report. Digital technology, directly or indirectly, drives about 70 per cent of global growth in the coming decade. In the AI sector, productivity grows more than four times as fast as in the rest of the economy. More than two thirds of companies come to a standstill within a day if ICT fails.

For Maastricht. For SMEs, the gain lies in applying technology, not in building chips. With the AI hub in Heerlen, Maastricht University and a European AI factory in Jülich, the building blocks are in the region.

We take it further. Case IV: an AI accelerator that brings models and applications to SMEs.

Domain · section 4.3

Security and resilience

The report. Security in Europe has deteriorated rapidly; drones also brought Eindhoven Airport to a standstill. The Netherlands must move from supplier to its own end products. Of the NATO standard of 5 per cent, 1.5 per cent goes to security-related spending, and the report also wants to use it to make ecosystems resilient.

For Maastricht. Resilience is also the continuity of ordinary businesses: electricity, ICT and supply. A border region depends all the more on what happens on the other side of the border.

We take it further. No case yet. Which Limburg case belongs here?

Domain · section 4.4

Energy and climate tech­nology

The report. To be climate-neutral by 2050, energy, industry, transport and buildings must all become sustainable at the same time. Solar energy and batteries became 90 per cent cheaper in ten years. The proposals in this domain, from green chemistry and batteries to water technology, are together worth more than €26 billion.

For Maastricht. With Chemelot, Limburg has a chemical cluster where that innovation comes together, and with the Meuse a river that is at once waterway, flood defence and potential energy source.

We take it further. Case II: the Meuse, and the Energy and climate dossier.

Domain · section 4.5

Life sciences and bio­technology

The report. There is a real chance that by 2060 one in three working people will be needed in healthcare. The proposals in this domain are together worth €37.9 billion. But assessment, reimbursement and the sharing of health data take a long time: the American FDA approves new medicines 3.4 times faster than the European EMA.

For Maastricht. The report names no location in Limburg. With the Brightlands Maastricht Health Campus and Maastricht University, however, Maastricht does have the place where research and business come together; Mosa Meat started there.

We take it further. Case III: scaling up, from spin-off to growth company.

Four preconditions

Precondition · section 3.1

Permits and regulation

The report. A standard environmental permit takes 8 to 12 weeks, a complex application more than half a year. Nitrogen has been blocking permits for more than six years, and clean water threatens to become the next permitting crisis: not a single Dutch surface water currently meets the Water Framework Directive, and the deadline is 2027.

For Maastricht. In a border region, the rules of the neighbouring countries come on top of that. Trains must be authorised in three countries, and the Netherlands shares the Border Meuse (Grensmaas) with Flanders.

We take it further. Case I and Case II.

Precondition · section 3.2

Talent

The report. The quality of education is declining and too few young people choose technology: proportionally, Germany trains almost twice as much STEM talent. International talent is deterred rather than attracted. The report wants regional productivity centres that help SMEs apply technology.

For Maastricht. Of the international graduates of Maastricht institutions, 12 per cent still live in the Netherlands after five years, the lowest share in the country. Here, Germany is not a benchmark on paper but the next labour market.

We take it further. Case III and Case IV.

Precondition · section 3.3

Affordable and reliable energy

The report. In three years, the waiting list for a grid connection grew from fewer than 700 to about 14,000 companies and organisations. On average, only 30 per cent of the existing grid's capacity is used, and electricity is 20 to 50 per cent more expensive than in neighbouring countries.

For Maastricht. In South Limburg, the major reinforcements of the high-voltage grid are planned between 2028 and 2034. Flexible consumption outside peak hours is the lever a business has in its own hands today.

We take it further. The Energy and climate dossier.

Precondition · section 3.4

Economic infra­structure

The report. Mainports, Brainport and innovation ecosystems need strong physical infrastructure. The report cites Project Beethoven, an investment programme of €2.5 billion in talent, mobility and housing around Brainport, and wants to make such an approach structural.

For Maastricht. For a city on two borders, infrastructure above all means connection: the railway to Liège and Aachen, the Meuse to Liège and Antwerp, the road to Eindhoven.

We take it further. Case I, Case II and Case V.

Based on the Wennink report, De route naar toekomstige welvaart, December 2025, chapters 3 and 4. What appears under For Maastricht is our reading, not a statement from the report.

Part I. Implementation

Governance and financing, and where we add to the report

The report finds that the Netherlands knows what needs to happen, but decides and delivers too slowly. Speed proves possible where parties feel a shared urgency and look beyond their partial interests. To that end, the report wants a Commissioner for Future Prosperity, a National Investment Bank and a permanent table of government, business and knowledge institutions.

What we adopt

The fields and the diagnosis

The eight fields are our foundation. They name the bottlenecks that we also see in the region: permits, talent, energy and infrastructure. We render them in our own words, with sources, and test each case against them.

We take it further

Where we add to the report

  • The report thinks nationally. Maastricht and the Euregio do not feature in it; its only reference to Limburg is the Einstein Telescope.
  • In the report, Belgium and Germany are a benchmark for prices and STEM talent. For Maastricht, they are the market, the labour market and the neighbours.
  • In the report, economic infrastructure is about mainports and ecosystems. The railway and the river across the border are missing.
  • The report wants a national table. A region needs a table of its own, close to those who decide and those who carry it out. That is Tribunal.

Based on the Wennink report, De route naar toekomstige welvaart, December 2025, section 5.4.

Part II. Our contribution

Five cases for the table

On the foundation of the report, we build five cases for Maastricht. Each case first names the field from the report, then the facts with sources, where it stalls, who decides and the question for the table.

  1. I

    The Three-Country Train (Drielandentrein)

    Economic infrastructure. One train an hour through three countries, and a half-hourly service that has not yet been decided.

  2. II

    The Meuse

    Economic infrastructure, permits and regulation. Waterway, flood defence and nature in a single river.

  3. III

    Scaling up in Maastricht

    Talent and capital. From student entrepreneur to mid-sized company, here in the city.

  4. IV

    The AI accelerator

    Digitalisation and AI, talent. AI that delivers real value for SMEs, and more pupils in mathematics and technology.

  5. V

    Maastricht Valley

    All eight fields. Maastricht as a hub of the Tristate City.

At a Session, the rapporteur opens such a case with a single five-minute plea. Then the floor passes to the table.

Case I. Economic infrastructure

The Three-Country Train (Drielandentrein): one train an hour through three countries

Since June 2024 a direct train has run every hour from Liège via Maastricht and Heerlen to Aachen. The idea is older than the train, and for a long time the train was far from reliable. Towards Aachen in particular, it still does not meet the Dutch standard.

Case I · as at 12 October 2026

Wennink report
Precondition: economic infrastructure. The report says nothing about rail in the border region. It does want government, business and the region to resolve bottlenecks together and structurally, as in Project Beethoven for Brainport. That is where we take it further.
The line
Liège, Maastricht, Heerlen and Aachen, about 78 kilometres. Maastricht-Aachen has run since 27 January 2019, Liège-Maastricht-Aachen since 30 June 2024. Three operators (NMBS, NS and Arriva) and three rail infrastructure managers jointly run a single service.
Why it matters
In 2024 around 91,900 residents of Belgium and Germany worked in the Netherlands. In South Limburg, 6.2 per cent of employees are cross-border commuters. Almost 60 per cent of Maastricht University's students come from the Netherlands or the Euregio. In September 2026 the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management described good cross-border connections as highly important for the Einstein Telescope bid.
Why it was so often cancelled
From 2019 until June 2024 the train terminated in Maastricht: at first Belgium did not admit the trainsets and the parties disagreed on costs and safety systems; after the agreements of 2023, the start was still held up by the approval of the trains. In the worst week of early 2025, a quarter of the trains between Heerlen and Aachen were cancelled without warning. The causes: drivers without German certification (training takes 8 to 10 months), technical faults, partly due to the installation of the ETCS train protection system, and congested track towards Aachen. According to the ministry, since September 2026 the train has mostly run as intended; towards Germany it remains below the standard. Checking in with the OV-chipkaart is still not possible in Belgium; the operators are waiting for OVpay in 2027.
Where the decision lies
In January 2026 central government and the province of Limburg agreed that the Dutch section of Maastricht-Liège will pass to the province from 2028, or otherwise from the end of 2031. A train every half hour to Liège is a shared ambition, not a decision. First, the level crossings near Eijsden must be made safer. That money sits in a single package with the demolition of the Spoorbrug in Maastricht, and the administrative agreement on it has not yet been signed.
What we did not find
We found no public measurement of what the train delivers for Maastricht's students, employees and visitors, and no current passenger figure.
Question for the table
Who at this table can bring the half-hourly Maastricht-Liège train closer to a decision, and which partial interest (money, concession, bridge or level crossing) must give way first?
The three key questions
  1. What does it cost the region in students, employees and customers that the train runs once an hour, and remains below the standard towards Aachen?
  2. Which cause (certification, technology or capacity) can the region solve itself, and which can it not?
  3. Who will take on a measurement that we did not find anywhere?

Sources: answers to parliamentary questions, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, IenW (3 March 2025 and 21 September 2026); declaration of intent by the Netherlands, Belgium and the Province of Limburg (2023); CBS (cross-border commuting 2024); Maastricht University (student figures 2025, provisional); Treinreiziger.nl and DutchNews (line and start dates). Consulted 12 October 2026.

Case II. Economic infrastructure, permits and regulations

The Meuse: waterway, dyke and nature in a single river

At Maastricht the Meuse has to be many things at once: waterway to Liège and Antwerp, flood defence, potential energy source, nature area and city river. How can the city make better use of its river, and keep it green?

Case II · as at 12 October 2026

Wennink report
Preconditions: economic infrastructure, and permits and regulations. The report warns that clean water could become the next permitting crisis: not a single Dutch surface water currently meets the European Water Framework Directive, and the deadline is 2027. About the Meuse itself, the report says nothing. That is where we take it further.
The river as infrastructure
The Juliana Canal (36 kilometres) is the waterway alongside the Meuse between Maastricht and Maasbracht. The canal is being enlarged for larger inland vessels. After a construction pit flooded, it lay dry for about eight months; it reopened on 11 April 2025. We did not find confirmation that the largest vessels are already permitted to use it. In 2025, 12.5 million tonnes were moved by water through the port of Liège. On 12 October 2024 a cargo ship sank at the Borgharen weir. That single accident threatened the water supply of Chemelot, the houseboats and the Natura 2000 area all at once.
Green space and biodiversity
Between Maastricht and Maasbracht, gravel extraction has produced more than 1,000 hectares of new nature, and a safer river. Via the fish pass at Borgharen (2008), salmon and sea trout are once again swimming up to the Ardennes. The beaver, osprey and kingfisher have returned.
The tension
The same widening made the current in Maastricht stronger: at high water, the largest ships cannot always navigate there safely. Several dykes do not meet the standard for 2050. Weirs keep the water navigable, but they also hold back gravel and fish.
Where the decision lies
In the Zuidelijk Maasdal project, central government, the water board, the province and the municipalities are seeking a single solution for safety, shipping, space and nature. The municipality of Maastricht chairs the steering group; the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management makes the choice. The preferred-option decision is now expected in 2028.
Who belongs at the table
Alongside government, shipping and nature management: those who can measure and interpret riverbank and river data. The better the banks, the current and life in the river are measured and interpreted, the sounder the trade-off.
Question for the table
Which intervention in the Meuse at Maastricht makes the dykes safe, keeps the waterway usable for large ships and makes the river richer in fish and nature, all at once? And who at this table puts that choice forward, before the preferred-option decision?
The three key questions
  1. What does the Meuse give Maastricht now, as waterway, water source, energy and city river, and what does it cost when that falters?
  2. Where do shipping, safety and nature clash, and where do they reinforce each other?
  3. Which data on the riverbanks and the river are still missing for a sound decision?

Sources: Rijkswaterstaat; Natuurmonumenten; Zuidelijk Maasdal project organisation; Port of Liège (annual figures 2025); the Wennink report, section 3.1. Consulted 12 October 2026.

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Case III. Talent and capital

Scaling up: from student entrepreneur to mid-sized company

Maastricht attracts talent from all over the world, but few international graduates stay on to live in the Netherlands. How do students become entrepreneurs here, and how do their companies grow here to a hundred jobs?

Case III · as at 12 October 2026

Wennink report
Precondition: talent, and the financing of growth. Dutch universities produce relatively few spin-offs. Of Dutch start-ups, 21.5 per cent grow into a scale-up, against 40.6 per cent in Germany and 54.1 per cent in the United States. Anyone wanting to raise more than €50 million can barely do so in the Netherlands. The report calls for a National Investment Bank and describes the regional development agencies as crucial to the link with the region.
Talent that leaves
Of the international graduates of Maastricht institutions, 12 per cent still live in the Netherlands after five years, the lowest share in the country (Eindhoven: 49 per cent). Some stay just across the border. In mid-2024 South Limburg had more than 11,000 unfilled vacancies; the shortages in engineering and ICT persist, whatever the state of the economy.
Capital in the region
LIOF, Limburg's regional development agency, made 39 investments in Limburg companies in 2025, totalling €24.1 million. The Limburg Startup Capital Fund offers each company up to €450,000 as a convertible loan for a proof of concept (Limburg Vroege Fase Fonds) and up to €1 million in equity (Seed Fonds Limburg). Mosa Meat started in 2015 at Maastricht University and the Brightlands Maastricht Health Campus, and counts both LIOF and Invest-NL among its investors.
Where it stalls
Nationally, it stalls at the step after the start: from a seed round to growth capital, from ten jobs to a hundred (according to the Wennink report). Whether that is also the case in Maastricht, we do not know: we found no public count of Maastricht spin-offs and scale-ups.
Question for the table
What has to happen in Maastricht so that a student who starts a company here also grows it here to a hundred jobs? And who at this table signs up for the first step?
The three key questions
  1. Where does a student entrepreneur drop out today: at the idea, the first capital or the first twenty employees?
  2. What capital is missing between a seed round and growth capital, and who in the Euregio can close that gap?
  3. What keeps an international graduate here: work, a home, a network or a company of their own?

Sources: Nuffic (retention of international graduates, 2025); UWV (South Limburg, 2024); LIOF (annual report 2025); Maastricht University; Food Business MEA (Mosa Meat, January 2026); the Wennink report, sections 2.4, 5.1 and 5.3. Consulted 12 October 2026.

Case IV. Digitalisation and AI, talent

An AI accelerator for the Maastricht economy

Not AI for its own sake. A strategic accelerator that brings economic models and practical applications to the region's SMEs, and that strengthens education in mathematics and technology.

Case IV · as at 12 October 2026

Wennink report
Domain: digitalisation and AI; precondition: talent. According to the report, digital technology, directly or indirectly, will drive about 70 per cent of global growth in the coming decade. It wants regional productivity centres that help SMEs apply technology, and calls computing power a strategic basic facility. At the same time, too few young people choose technology: proportionally, Germany trains almost twice as much STEM talent.
What is already in place
In February 2021 the AI hub opened in Heerlen on the Brightlands Smart Services Campus, with Maastricht University as one of its initiators. UM's Department of Advanced Computing Sciences has more than 100 researchers and about 1,400 students. Just across the border, Jülich, together with RWTH Aachen, is building a European AI factory of about €55 million, which explicitly seeks cooperation with large companies and SMEs.
Mathematics, technology and AI
In a project of the national education lab for AI (NOLAI, of which UM is a partner), a prototype is being built that recognises reasoning errors in mathematics exercises and gives pupils targeted feedback. We did not find a Limburg school in these projects. From 2018 to 2022, nine Limburg technasium schools, Stichting Technasium and UM worked together on a better transition to STEM degree programmes, partly to keep STEM talent in Limburg.
Where it stalls
The building blocks are in place. What we did not find is evidence of scale: how many SMEs in the region already genuinely use AI, and with what result.
Question for the table
Which three processes in Limburg SMEs could AI make twice as fast within six months? And which school in the region already uses AI to get more pupils through wiskunde B (advanced mathematics)?
The three key questions
  1. Which models and applications will demonstrably deliver results for an SME here within a year?
  2. Who supplies the computing power, the data and the guidance: the AI hub, Maastricht University or the AI factory across the border?
  3. How can AI help a teacher win more pupils over to mathematics and technology?

Sources: Maastricht University (AI hub, 2021; Department of Advanced Computing Sciences; technasium covenant, 2018); State of North Rhine-Westphalia and EuroHPC (JUPITER AI Factory, 2025); NOLAI (Radboud University); the Wennink report, sections 3.2 and 4.2. Accessed 12 October 2026.

Case V. All eight fields

Maastricht Valley: the hub of the Tristate City

The Netherlands, Flanders and North Rhine-Westphalia together have more than 43 million inhabitants. Maastricht lies between them. Will the city remain the end of the Dutch line, or will it become the hub of three countries? Maastricht Valley is our working name for that hub, not an existing brand.

Maastricht

The centre of the Maastricht Valley.

  • Student talent. Around 23,000 students at Maastricht University; almost 60 per cent come from the Netherlands or the Euregio.
  • Between the parts of the Tristate City. Brussels, Cologne and Düsseldorf lie within 100 kilometres as the crow flies.
  • The Maastricht Treaty. On 7 February 1992 the treaty that founded the European Union was signed here.
  • Three countries, three lines. The railway to Liège and Aachen, the Meuse to Liège and Antwerp, an airport 9 kilometres away.
  • One hub, resource rooms in three countries. Our proposal: from Maastricht, Tribunal connects the cities of the Tristate City.

  • Domain

    Digitalisation and AI

    Case IV: the AI accelerator for SMEs.

  • Domain

    Energy and climate tech­nology

    Case II: a river that stays climate-resilient and green.

  • Domain

    Life sciences and bio­technology

    Case III: from the Health Campus to growth companies, such as Mosa Meat.

  • Domain

    Security and resilience

    No case yet. The report wants to use part of the security budget for resilient ecosystems. Which Limburg case belongs here?

  • Precondition

    Economic infra­structure

    Case I and II: the Three-Country Train and the Meuse.

  • Precondition

    Talent

    Case III and IV: retaining talent, and more pupils in mathematics and technology.

  • Precondition

    Permits and regulation

    Case II: clean water, deadline 2027. Case I: authorising trains in three countries.

  • Precondition

    Affordable and reliable energy

    No case of its own yet. The Meuse supplies hydropower at Linne; at Borgharen a power station received a permit in 2015, but according to the Council of State (February 2025) none is running.

  • Netherlands Eindhoven 68 km, Amsterdam 178 km
  • Belgium Liège 25 km, Hasselt 26 km, Brussels 94 km
  • Germany Aachen 29 km, Düsseldorf 87 km, Cologne 90 km
The Maastricht Valley: Maastricht in the centre, the eight fields of the Wennink report around it, the three countries at the edge where they lie. Distances as the crow flies from the Vrijthof.

Case V · as at 12 October 2026

The Wennink report
All eight fields. The report thinks in terms of national ecosystems such as Brainport Eindhoven, and wants a more integrated European capital market. It does not mention the Euregio or the Tristate City. That is where we take it further.
Weak links
Since December 2011 there has been no direct train from Maastricht to Brussels. The Three-Country Train runs once an hour, and is still below the standard towards Aachen. Of international graduates from Maastricht institutions, 12 per cent still live in the Netherlands after five years. In 2025 Maastricht Aachen Airport handled 41,636 tonnes of freight (2024: 28,448 tonnes) and 159,270 passengers.
Our proposal
One hub in Maastricht that connects the three countries, with resource rooms in the cities of the Tristate City: places where an entrepreneur, researcher or administrator from one country finds the knowledge, the capital and the mandate of the other two. This is an ambition of Tribunal, not an existing project.
Question for the table
What needs to be arranged across three borders so that a company in Maastricht can serve Brussels, Cologne and Eindhoven as one home market? And which of those connections can this table accelerate itself?
The three key questions
  1. Which connection (train, river, capital or talent) is holding the Maastricht Valley back the most at present?
  2. Where would the first resource room add the most value: in Liège, Aachen or Eindhoven?
  3. Who in the three countries needs to sit at the table to carry the hub?

Sources: CBS, Statbel and IT.NRW (population, own calculation); European Parliament (Maastricht Treaty); Maastricht University; Aerotelegraph (Maastricht Aachen Airport, 2025); Nuffic; the Wennink report, sections 2 and 5.1. Accessed 12 October 2026.

Wennink in Maastricht

A Beethoven across three borders: the example Ruling

The Wennink report cites Project Beethoven as an example: with this investment programme of 2.5 billion euros in talent, mobility and housing, central government and the region, together with business, gave Brainport new prospects. The report wants such an approach to be structural, not a one-off. This is how a Session would translate that to Maastricht. An example: this Session has not taken place.

Then the connections: who speaks to whom, with names included. This is how the decision reaches the city.

Ruling: the Maastricht Valley as a hub (example)

The table sets the framework: one bottleneck, one decision-maker, one deadline. Each bottleneck from the five cases is given an owner at the table and a date on which it returns to the table.

Steps

  1. Draw up a list of the five bottlenecks, stating for each one the party authorised to decide.

    Owner: the registry Due: before the next Session

  2. Ask central government and the province which step is missing from the administrative agreement for the level crossings at Eijsden, and when it will be signed.

    Owner: a member from public administration Due: before the next Session

  3. Draft a proposal for a first measurement of what the Three-Country Train delivers for students, employees and the city centre.

    Owner: a member from a knowledge institution Due: before the next Session

  4. Map out, together with the regional development agency, which capital is missing between a seed round and growth capital.

    Owner: a member with experience in venture capital Due: before the next Session

  5. Select three SME processes for a first AI pilot, with the AI hub in Heerlen.

    Owner: an entrepreneur at the table Due: within six months

Connections

  • A student entrepreneur meets a member who grew a company into a scale-up in the region.
  • A member from shipping meets a member from nature management about Zuidelijk Maasdal, before the preferred-option decision.
  • A head teacher meets a researcher about AI in mathematics education.
  • A member from Liège, Aachen or Eindhoven explores the first resource room.

The registry records the Ruling in the register. At the next Session, every step is back on the table.

Project Beethoven and the call for a structural approach: based on the Wennink report, De route naar toekomstige welvaart, December 2025, section 3.4.

This was an example. Which case will you put on the table yourself? Request the documents, or ask us to call you back. Both are non-binding.

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