Conurbations 

• Town of Kerkrade

• Town of Herzogenrath

Number of inhabitants and surface area: 

96,000 inhabitants (49,000 in the Netherlands and 47,000 in Germany) in an area covering 55 km2.

A very integrated cross-border territory

This conurbation is located in the heart of a larger cross-border urban area (the  MAHHL network), the principal towns of which are Heerlen, Maastricht (Netherlands) and Aachen (Germany). This cross-border conurbation with a continuous urban structure is only separated by a single street. Today, the inhabitants of the two towns share a joint urban space and both municipalities have chosen to pool a certain number of services.

 The advantages of a cross-border conurbation

The proximity of Kerkrade and Herzogenrath and their similarity on a demographic level does not preclude them from suffering from a certain number of difficulties, which must be managed jointly. The settling of numerous Germans in the Dutch community due to the cost of property is one of the starting points for cross-border cooperation between the two cities. In order to resolve this problem, the inhabitants of Kerkrade were allowed to build houses on the German side under the same conditions as those practised on the Dutch side. At Kerkrade, the new German inhabitants had difficulty in integrating and continued to use the public services of Herzogenrath. In order to overcome this, the Dutch municipality set up bi-lingual classes in the municipal schools (the "Eurobabel" project).

Eurode Business Center

Both municipalities implemented a number of cross-border projects in order to enhance cross-border integration, in terms of urban development (renovation of the border street, creation of a technology park, creation of a cross-border business centre ('Eurode Business Center')) or public services (cooperation between rescue and fire-fighting services and the creation of a joint police station).

From informal cooperation to a public cross-border body

Even before the opening of the internal borders of the European Union in 1992, the municipalities of Kerkrade and Herzogenrath had already decided to strengthen cross-border cooperation. In July 1991 both municipalities signed a declaration of intentions to form a working group called "Eurode". The cross-border projects identified on the environmental and economic level were brought together in a common strategic plan. For several years, this document has been the reference to be followed for the cross-border cooperation implemented between the two municipalities.
In 1997, the deliberations, which took place between 1992 and 1997, resulted in the joint wish to formalise their cooperation by creating a public cross-border body. Since 1st January, 1998, Kerkrade and Herzogenrath have thus joined in this public body "Eurode", consisting of a general assembly (with municipal counsellors and placed under the alternating presidency of the mayor of one of the two towns) and an executive committee.