The Straits Committee is pleased to announce that the Province of Zuid-Holland from the Netherlands has joined the Straits Committee to become its 7th full member. The decision was confirmed by the Straits Committee at their December 2021 meeting. Jeannette Baljeu, the regional minister for European and International Affairs, said: “We are looking forward to working with the coastal regions around the Straits of Dover, a collaboration of regions that have shown in the past that they have many points of contact.” 

On July 7, 2021, the fourth Executive Committee of the Straits Committee took place in Ghent. This meeting allowed the members of the Committee to re-launch cross-border exchanges between the six local authorities of the Strait, physically reunited for the first time since the Executive Committee of July 1, 2020 in Middleburg.

The local authorities of the Straits Committee seek to promote cross-border cooperation on both sides of the strait by providing technical and financial support for local cross-border initiatives in various fields. To do so, the small projects initiative has a budget of €30,000 per local authority. The local authorities participating in the call for proposals for 2021 are the Kent County Council, the Department of Pas-de-Calais, the Department of the Nord, the Province of West Flanders, the Province of East Flanders, and the Province of Zeeland.

Convinced that good cross-border relations are of real added value to the territories bordering the Strait area, and given the geographical proximity and intensity of connections between the territories, the members of the Straits Committee have wished to develop a shared vision and strategy to guide their joint actions and shape the Strait region’s future development.