This is a perfect gateway into Continental Europe for those taking their first steps. Everything is relatively safe and easy to navigate, and many people speak passable English. Distances between cities are small, and those cities are compact and walkable. Luxembourg and the East of Belgium are a hilly area, but the rest of the Benelux is what is known as the Low Countries ; this is the delta of the rivers Scheldt, Meuse, Rhine and Ems that used to be swamp land.
Enterprising fishermen discovered a flair for trade when trading routes started to emerge between the grain markets of the Baltic Sea and the renaissance-bitten luxury goods markets of northern Italy.
Here is where stocks were invented. Trade in all kinds of goods as well as enslaved humans made a small elite incredibly rich and the Dutch East India Company VOC for its Dutch name became one of the first multinational stock based companies and in its heyday controlled entire countries. This attention to trade made Bruges one of the largest cities in Europe in its day, and the medieval old town is still well preserved.
When the secession war with Spain progressed, French and Flemish alike fled to Amsterdam , which became the new world capital of trade, which is still witnessed in the many 'Houses of the Lords' lining the famous canals. In Belgium, while most Dutch speakers can speak reasonable French, few Belgian francophones speak Dutch, which has caused political tension in the country.
Luxembourg has three official languages: Luxembourgish, French and German, but for all practical purposes French is the most important language for travelers. Many people, especially in the Netherlands and Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, have a very high proficiency of English, and younger people often have near native fluency.
This is because foreign television content is aired in its original language, with subtitles. On the other hand, in French-speaking Wallonia, TV is dubbed into French and people hence do not speak English so well. Frisian is a minority language spoken in Friesland Netherlands. As Dutch is very close to German, you will be understood with difficulty by most Dutch speakers if you speak German, but not all of them will necessarily speak more than a handful of German phrases themselves.
Most people get into the Benelux region by plane or train. Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and Zaventem Airport in Brussels are the largest airports in the region; Schiphol is also important as a transfer airport for further destinations in Europe.
High-speed trains operated by Thalys connect Paris with Brussels , Antwerp , Rotterdam , and Amsterdam in a little more than three hours. High-speed trains operated by Eurostar connect London with Brussels and Amsterdam. The major companies running Intercity buses in Germany all serve stations in the Benelux as well.
France liberalized its long distance bus market in , and connections to major cities in the Benelux have either been announced or are planned. This website uses cookies to manage authentication, navigation, and other functions. By using our website, you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device. The Benelux is an economic union created by Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, headquartered in Bruxelles.
Its aim is to strengthen the relations among the three states and to be a platform for the advancement of the European integration process. As a response to the emerging reconstruction needs of post-war Europe, in February Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg launched an economic union at The Hague. It was a major achievement which reflected an idea of integration already developed in the twenty-year period between the world wars through a series of commercial initiatives.
This was consolidated after the last conflict with the creation of a customs union in For countries such as those of the Benelux, which have small territories but are rich in valuable raw materials, inaugurating a form of closer cooperation was indeed the only way to gain influence at continental level. Faced with both global and continental changes as well as the expiry of the constitutive Treaty , the Benelux countries have felt the need to define new objectives, so that, in the contest of an enlarged Europe, their union may continue to be a forum of ideas and suggestions for the advancement of a Community project.
The risk of being marginalized after the opening up of the Union to Eastern European countries has led Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, as co-founding countries of small to medium stature, to establish a broader basis for their cooperation that goes beyond the economic field. Boyer ed. De Brabander, G. Buyst et al. Dercksen, W.
Dowrick, S. Driehuis, W. Dupriez, L. Englander, A. Frognier, A. Gales, B. Jones and H. Gillingham, J. Eichengreen ed. Gilot, A. Griffiths, R. Aerts and A.
Groote, P. Hartog, J. Hogg, R. Katzenstein, P. Keesing, F. Kervyn de Lettenhove, A. Kindleberger, C. Steinherr and D. Weiserbs eds , Employment and Growth: Issues for the s , Dordrecht, pp. Reprinted in C. Kindleberger Marshall Plan Days , Boston, pp. Kremers, J. Neary and S.
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