The KRAKE project has come to an end

Strengthening the long-term viability of small villages in the border region – that is the idea behind the German-Dutch cooperation project KRAKE Krachtige Kernen/Starke Dörfer. As more and more communities are losing essential services and seeing their quality of life decline, the project’s aim was to provide impetus to counteract this trend. Over the course of the three-year project, a series of measures was developed in collaboration with the residents of a total of 55 pilot villages in the Euregio region. The results demonstrate that a high level of commitment in small villages can indeed lead to success. Throughout the project, the villages were supported by experts from Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences and the Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen (HAN).

On both sides of the border, numerous activities were developed by experts, volunteers and village communities in more than 100 workshops, and 64 cooperation agreements were concluded. In addition to the measures devised, the KRAKE project also gave rise to new networks. The overall aim was to keep the villages in the border region vibrant. Through so-called ‘communities’, the aim was to create initiatives that would enhance the quality of life and social sustainability of these villages. Various project groups revisited the following questions: ‘What can we do ourselves – both now and in the future – to ensure the village remains vibrant and attractive?’ To ensure that the expertise remained within the villages after the project ended, local initiatives and volunteers were involved as active partners. The volunteers contributed almost 35,000 hours of voluntary work. And as similar problems exist on both sides of the border, but Germans and the Dutch often tackle them differently, there was a great opportunity to learn from one another.

For the project, seven communities were formed: ‘Care’, ‘DNA’, ‘Family’, ‘Healthy Lifestyle’, ‘IT & Media’, ‘Service’ and ‘Housing’. Each project group took on one of these topics. The results were documented in handbooks and published on the project’s website at project-krake.eu/de/handbucher/. In addition, the site features links to profiles of specific projects from the pilot villages, which can encourage exchange in the form of a ‘digital’ cross-border village day. “We are convinced that local people want to get involved and are interested in the future viability of their village community. We have found that it can be worthwhile to look for tailor-made and perhaps even unusual opportunities, even if this may mean that results take longer to materialise and are more difficult to implement,” says Professor Dr Klaus Hegemann, Professor of General Business Administration at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, summarising his work as project leader on the KRAKE project for the ‘DNA’, ‘Care’ and ‘Housing’ communities.

The outcomes included, for example, the role of a “village supporter”, a series of seminars on key health topics, the design of new multi-generational housing, a village shop, a play and exercise area for young and old, and the redevelopment of a market square. German-Dutch village days, dialogues between older and younger generations, music festivals and innovation hubs were organised. Andreas Kochs, deputy managing director of Euregio Rhine-Waal, is impressed by the level of self-management in the villages, the social cohesion and the resulting quality of life, whilst Dr Kees Boele, President of the Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen, sees the project as a harbinger of further cooperation in the German-Dutch border region of the Euregio Rhine-Waal.

The KRAKE project is co-funded under the European INTERREG V A ‘Germany-Netherlands’ programme with funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MWIDE NRW) and the Province of Gelderland. The project partners are the Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen, Münster University of Applied Sciences, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, TAFH Münster GmbH, the Münster Chamber of Crafts and the Borken District Craftsmen’s Association. The KRAKE project was nominated for the ‘REGIOSTARS 2019’ award. The European Commission presents this award annually to EU-funded projects that demonstrate excellence and introduce new approaches to regional development.

About INTERREG

INTERREG, or ‘European Territorial Cooperation’ as it is officially known, forms part of the European Union’s structural and investment policy. For more than 20 years, it has been used to support cross-border cooperation between regions and cities that has an impact on everyday life, for example in transport, the labour market and environmental protection. The funding area of the Germany-Netherlands INTERREG programme stretches from the North Sea coast to the Lower Rhine. The area comprises parts of the German federal states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as the Dutch provinces of Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe, Flevoland, Overijssel, Gelderland, North Brabant and Limburg.