Katana VentraIP

Benelux

The Benelux Union (Dutch: Benelux Unie;[7] French: Union Benelux;[8] Luxembourgish: Benelux-Unioun)[9] or Benelux is a politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring states in western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.[10] The name is a portmanteau formed from joining the first few letters of each country's name and was first used to name the customs agreement that initiated the union (signed in 1944).[11] It is now used more generally to refer to the geographic, economic, and cultural grouping of the three countries.

This article is about the politico-economic union. For the geographical region, see Low Countries.

Benelux Union

5 September 1944[2]

1 January 1948[2]

17 June 2008

1 January 2010

75,140[3][4][5] km2 (29,010 sq mi)

Increase 29,200,564

400/km2 (1,036.0/sq mi)

2021 estimate

Increase €1.431 trillion[6]

Increase €47,700

Euro (EUR)

UTC+1 (CET)

UTC+2 (CEST)

right

The Benelux is an economically dynamic and densely populated region, with 5.6% of the European population (29.55 million residents) and 7.9% of the joint EU GDP (€36,000/resident) on 1.7% of the whole surface of the EU.[12] In 2015, 37% of the total number of EU cross-border workers worked in the Benelux.[13] 35,000 Belgian citizens work in Luxembourg, while 37,000 Belgian citizens cross the border to work in the Netherlands each day. In addition, 12,000 Dutch and close to a thousand Luxembourg residents work in Belgium.


The main institutions of the Union are the Committee of Ministers, the Council of the Union, the General Secretariat, the Interparliamentary Consultative Council and the Benelux Court of Justice while the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property covers the same land but is not part of the Benelux Union.


The Benelux General Secretariat is located in Brussels. It is the central platform of the Benelux Union cooperation. It handles the secretariat of the Committee of Ministers, the Council of Benelux Union and the sundry committees and working parties. The General Secretariat provides day-to-day support for the Benelux cooperation on the substantive, procedural, diplomatic and logistical levels. The Secretary-General is Frans Weekers from the Netherlands and there are two deputies: Deputy Secretary-General Michel-Etienne Tilemans from Belgium and Deputy Secretary-General Jean-Claude Meyer from Luxembourg.


The presidency of the Benelux is held in turn by the three countries for a period of one year. Belgium holds the presidency for 2024.


About 80% of the Benelux population speaks Dutch.

Admiral Benelux

EU Med Group

Baltic Assembly

Inner Six

Low Countries

Nordic Council

United Kingdom of the Netherlands

Visegrád Group

Polish–Czechoslovak confederation

Proposed United Kingdom Confederation

Kersten, A.E. (1982). Maken drie kleinen een grote? De politieke invloed van de Benelux, 1945-1955. Bussum: Van Holkema & Warendorf.  63269615.

OCLC

Willy van Ryckeghem : Benelux in: The European Economy - Growth and Crisis, Andrea Boltho, Editor, Oxford University Press, 1982,  0-19-877118-5.

ISBN

Edit this at Wikidata (in Dutch and French)

Official website

Benelux Court of Justice

Archived 2 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine

Benelux Office for Intellectual Property