Limburg citizenry welcome cross border news coverage

DILSEN-STOKKEM – National borders in Europe are now open and for the most part resemble provincial or state borders in North America. Cross border cooperation in various forms is on the rise. The decision by the two regional newspapers in the Dutch and Belgian Limburg provinces to add cross border news desks is a logical step. The provinces were for hundreds of years a single entity although with a significantly different border. A special inaugural supplement in the papers highlighted the results of a survey in which two thirds of a 6,200 sample agreed they were interested in reading about the other Limburg. Nine out of ten expressed pride in their provincial identity with the majority rating themselves Limburger first, Dutch or Belgian second. This sentiment is the greatest in Belgian Limburg. It was 170 years ago this year that the two parts of Limburg were officially split again into a Dutch and Belgian part.