DEFINING MEUSE-RHINE

[EDIT: Liège, April 29]
Dr. Jürgen Linden, the mayor of Aachen has been awarded this year’s Prix Notger, presented by the German-Belgian Society, at the Prince-Bishop’s palace in Liège. Mayor Linden received the award for his service in fostering development in Meuse-Rhine, with specific reference to cross-border rail and bus links and joint projects in technology, ecology, energy and the arts. He pointed to the barrier of language in the region, speaking in his own excellent French. He also warned of the danger of Meuse-Rhine being ’squeezed out’ by the surrounding heavyweights of Brussels, Antwerp, The Dutch Randstad conurbation, the Rhine and the Ruhr and he emphasized the need to define the shared Meuse-Rhine Euroregion.

The Prix Notger is an award that forms one of the highlights of the ‘Semaine Allemande’, a flexible period of time which brings the relations between the Province of Liège and Germany into focus, mediated by the Province’s own German-speaking region. The award was made this year in Liège’s great Episcopal Palace, the entrance hall of which leads to a large double staircase. To the left, if one approaches from the inner courtyard, the stairs are surmounted by a portrait of Notger himself – the first real Prince Bishop, of Swabian origin, in the late 10th century (972-1008 AD). He came from The Abbey of St Gall and established the first palace on the site.

http://www.aachen.de