The cities of Herzogenrath and Kerkrande are separated by the German-Dutch border. But they share a lot and want to apply to the EU to become a city. What road is that? On one side it has only odd numbers in the houses and on the other side both even and odd numbers. On one side the windows have curtains, on the other they don’t. On one side there are cars with white license plates on the other with yellow ones.

The solution to the mystery lies in the fact that it is a road that is a border between Germany and the Netherlands. One side belongs to the city of Herzogenrat and the other city is called Kerkrade.

“We were united until 1815, it was a town.” says the mayor of Kerkrande, Petra Dassen to the German News Agency. “But then the Congress of Vienna drew the borders here and suddenly families were torn apart. One section was suddenly Dutch and the other German,” he adds.

In Kerkrante there is almost no resident who did not have a German grandmother or a German uncle.” And vice versa. “I have an incredibly large number of Dutch friends,” says Herzogenrat mayor Benjamin Fadavian. “We have a lot of family relationships, marriages between people from both countries, that’s normal for us.” Many people speak both languages ​​and identify with both countries. In the European Football Championship they watch both teams excitedly.

They also acquired a common name: Eurode

Little by little the two cities have changed over the last decades and have become closer. They even acquired a common name: Eurode. The fire department has its fire engines in both countries. Anyone who is a member of the Kerkrante library can automatically borrow books from the Herzogenrat and vice versa. The Eurode Business Center is located right in the middle of national borders and it even happens that the men’s toilets are in Germany and the women’s in the Netherlands.

“The Dutch are more relaxed in their relationships, people immediately say ‘you’,” explains Stephanie van den Berg-Tennissen. And she knows what she’s talking about, since she’s married to a Dutchman. He is a consultant to companies operating on the German-Dutch border. Her office is next to the office of her colleague Cor Choudy in Kerkrade, who says: “The European Union is implemented here and not in Brussels or somewhere else.”

The twin city

This partnership is important for residents. They learn it from their genocides. However, not everything is easy. Both sides struggle with daily frustrations. “We’ve reached a point where we say we can’t go on,” explains Mayor Petra Dachen. “Everything we do we do with a lot of love and dedication, we continue what we already have, but we do not take the decisive step to reach the next level of completion. For example, the official establishment of a bilingual kindergarten. We have considered it, but it is not possible, national laws do not allow it. This has to do with professional degrees.”

That’s why she and her German colleague Fadavian came up with the idea of ​​applying to the European Union for a cross-border European twin city: “So national laws could be suspended to some extent. It would be a test to see if it works” As far as he knows, this would be the first initiative of this kind within the EU. “Our two cities as a European test laboratory. That’s what we’re asking for,” says Fadavian, describing the plan. An innovative European idea that in the coming months will be seen if it can be put into practice.

Edited by: Maria Rigoutsou