We, the Prime Ministers of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, met in Maastricht today for the annual Benelux Summit to reconfirm our commitment to deepening our trilateral, cross-border cooperation. Capitalising on the Benelux Union’s unique institutional position in the EU, reflected in Article 350 TFEU, and based on an extensive and longstanding experience of working together, we reaffirm our ambition to strengthen the Benelux as a frontrunner for European cooperation.
We confirm the importance of a strong European single market for the Benelux. In this light, we welcome and support the goals of the European Commission’s Skills Portability Initiative, whose effect will be particularly felt in a cross-border context and by professionals with qualifications from higher education or from vocational training and education. To deploy scarce international talent efficiently, while safeguarding professional standards in regulated sectors, we will set out a roadmap to reduce the procedural throughput time for the recognition of professional qualifications within the Benelux to a minimum and reduce language barriers where possible. We will optimise the exchange of information via the Internal Market Information System and by further digitalising procedures.
Further strengthening the European single market, we endorse the Benelux-facilitated proof of concept for a digital Business Wallet and will share its results with the European Commission to feed into the development of a European Business Wallet. We further announce closer cooperation on improved key performance indicators to monitor and improve the functioning of the European internal market.
We highlight the importance of deepening the integration of the single market through harmonisation and mutual recognition and by tackling the barriers to the well-functioning of the single market. In this context, we confirm our commitment to removing unjustified territorial supply constraints, look forward to the outcome of the consultations initiated by the European Commission, and welcome targeted action at EU level following its conclusion, based on facts, practical needs, and a thorough impact assessment.
We welcome the efforts to advance the cross-border pre-deployment of automated vehicles through the introduction of the Benelux Prototype Passport, hereby reducing administrative barriers. By facilitating this groundbreaking innovation, we capitalise on the Benelux’ role as a driving force in Europe for innovative and future-proof transport solutions, in closer cooperation with North Rhine-Westphalia.
We agree to intensify our joint efforts on the circular economy, including, where appropriate, through coordination at EU level. Furthermore, we support, in collaboration with the industry, innovation in sorting, dismantling and recycling technologies to foster demand in secondary raw materials and to enable a circular value chain on critical raw materials.
We continue to push forward the Benelux‑driven system of automatic diploma recognition, in close cooperation with our European partners, and encourage a broader European uptake of this model.
We reiterate our ambition to strengthening our security, building on the Benelux police cooperation treaty and exemplified by the increasingly close cooperation between our special intervention units. We also applaud the contribution to increasing the resilience of general aviation against cross-border crime by Operation Silent Skies, a Benelux initiative in which eight European countries participated this year.
Strengthening cross-border services for citizens, we signed a Benelux decision on cross‑border ambulance transport as an important legal step toward further enhancing existing cooperation.
These initiatives stand witness to our resolve to position a more integrated and innovative Benelux at the forefront of European cooperation. We reflect on another year of fruitful political cooperation, including in the EU and UN. We remain united in our commitment to furthering the benefits of the Benelux model for our citizens and for a stronger, safer and more competitive EU by further developing some of the innovations highlighted today on the basis of a joint roadmap under the Belgian presidency in 2027.