The student housing crisis shows that building student campuses should be a priority in Maastricht's building ambitions. Areas for new such campuses include Randwyck, Franciscus Romanusweg, the Noorderbrug area, Prins Bisschopsingel, the KPN site and the TregaTerrein. High-rise buildings should never block the view of the city centre, but Volt wants to have an open discussion with community centres and local residents about high-rise buildings in other neighbourhoods.

Volt wants to build an affordable and liveable student campus as soon as possible, ideally in Randwyck. Such a campus must meet a good quality of life and be able to adhere to the price range of max €376 for non-self-contained accommodations and €543 for self-contained accommodations, as set out in Maastricht's "Student Housing Programme 2026 - 2030".

Maastricht is facing a massive housing crisis. That is why Volt wants to prioritise building new residential areas, such as at Oeslingerbaan in Randwyck, the river bank near Franciscus Romanusweg, the Noorderbrug area, the Koompe on Prins Bisschopsingel, the KPN site near Noormannensingel and the TregaTerrein on Borgharenweg. Volt also wants to have an open discussion with community centres and residents about high-rise buildings outside the historic centre.

Volt wants a flexible approach to zoning so that offices, shops and flats can more easily share buildings together. With one function per building, it is difficult for the city to keep up with a changing zeitgeist.

Crime in Maastricht and the great Euroregion moves across borders, while our security and politics still don't. That is why Volt wants to put more effort into cross-border law enforcement: locally, that means more Belgian, Dutch and German cooperation in the Maas-Rhine security region, Europe-wide it means more integration of the Europol into a truly European police force.

Volt believes that inclusiveness and diversity are still not mentioned enough in the Maastricht debate. The pilot citizens' council, realised by Volt, is one of several meeting places that the city desperately needs to build bridges between our communities. Volt also wants to develop a municipal curriculum to strengthen democracy and emancipation at a young age and combat discrimination.

Volt wants to reduce noise nuisance. By building affordable campuses, we don't just solve the housing crisis for students, but wel also improve the quality of life in existing residential areas in which a vibrant student life and a quite working life are less suitable.

Volt believes that economic inequality is the source of many challenges in our society. That is why Volt strives to always take into account, where possible, the strengthening of equal opportunities and livelihood security in our municipality's social and economic policy.

Migration remains a political theme. With every council proposal, every motion and every other political step within the walls of the municipality, Volt names the necessary solutions to welcome non-European migrants, allow them to participate in the region and learn the language - so that Maastricht remains an open, inclusive and dynamic home city for newcomers. Do you have ideas for involving migrants more in the city and region? Then contact jessica_sleijpen@volteuropa.org!

Volt wants to talk to experts about a possible increase in the property tax, or OZB, in Maastricht. By focusing on “strongest shoulders, heaviest burdens”, we hope we can move towards a more equal local society that ensures a healthier financial situation, without the most fragile group in the city losing the most.

Together with the municipality, Volt wants to look at the possibilities of setting up a traineeship for internationals in Maastricht, in collaboration with UM and Zuyd. We want to retain international talent in the city. This can be done, for example, by actively recruiting Flemish graduates and status holders who are learning Dutch as a municipality, or by setting up a Master program in collaboration with UM and Zuyd.

Volt wants to look at the possibilities of assisting new Maastricht residents, of any nationality, through a new employment agency. In conversation with the municipality, we want to see to what extent this is possible.

In 2022, Volt managed to make the energy allowance available to international students - including non-European ones! That is unique in the Netherlands and we are very proud of that. We will continue to fight for a social system in Maastricht that takes non-Dutch people into account as much as possible. Any ideas of your own? Contact jessica_sleijpen@volteuropa.org!

In consultation with the municipality, Volt wants to look at the possibility of introducing district-related budgets for informal care, so that there is less financial pressure on municipal coordination and the accessibility of informal care increases.

Low literacy is higher in Maastricht (13%) than regional and national (11-12%). We want to talk to local partners, such as Vista College, about how to address this issue. Do you have ideas? Then mail jessica_sleijpen@volteuropa.org!

Volt is in favour of real decentralization of the social domain: more political space for local politics is good for a democracy close to the people. But then we should also get the Hague's money for that! The Hague's “decentralization” was actually a disguised austerity. We are trying to combat this at all levels in the country, for example with our letter to the Prime Minister in October 2023. More ideas for good local care? Contact jessica_sleijpen@volteuropa.org!

Volt wants to look at the financial options to work in the long term towards a part-time contribution for beneficiaries, so that people with benefits are not punished if they work extra hours.

With every proposal, from Volt or other parties, that concerns health or safety, we ask the same question: are we just going to combat symptoms, or are we also going to invest in prevention? This is how we provide long-term solutions in healthcare and law enforcement.

Due to a decline in the number of school-age children, many secondary schools want to move to shared locations. Volt wants at least two school communities to remain for those schools, so that education is guaranteed on both sides of the Meuse.

Volt wants to innovate much more in language teaching in the border region and actively motivating a healthy lifestyle in primary schools. To achieve this, we, as an education party, must continue to have active discussions with primary schools and secondary schools: for example, we have already visited Sint Maartenscollege, the Bernard Lievegoed School and there are various appointments on the agenda!

Volt wants to involve the educational institutions of South Limburg - Vista, Zuyd and UM - in local politics as much as possible. That is why we will continue to have active discussions with MBO, HBO and WO so that their concerns, challenges and successes are included in our political decisions.

Volt wants Maastricht to participate in the Limburg project “Healthy Primary School of the Future”, so that more healthy school meals, information and exercise are central to schools. To look at opportunities, we want to talk to primary schools and the college.

Volt wants to actively talk to people from Maastricht to set up a curriculum for Maastricht schools for themes that concern our “Mestreechter Maotsjappij”: from democracy to emancipation and from discrimination to inclusiveness. Do you want to contribute ideas? Mail: jessica_sleijpen@volteuropa.org.

Accessible and affordable Dutch language education deserves more attention. The arrival of international students and labour migrants makes Maastricht a dynamic city. New Maastricht residents only stay if they bond with the region. Volt therefore wants the municipality to offer affordable and accessible Dutch language education to our newcomers, in cooperation with various partners (such as UM and Zuyd).

International students should be able to combine courses in learning the Dutch language with their regular studies, ranging from A1 to C2 level. In consultation with the university, Volt wants to ensure that Dutch language education is always available as an elective within English-language studies and that the associated ECTS credits are counted. Such a way of keeping foreign-language students in the city is also used at other universities in Europe.

Volt wants to promote the Limburgian language, among people who already speak the language but also among new residents who would like to learn it. Although the coalition supports initiatives that strengthen the position of Maastricht-Limburgian, Volt doesn't think it is sufficient. Volt would like the municipality to actively offer Limburgian language courses with partners (such as Veldeke and the Limbörgse Academie).

Volt recognises that to keep young talent in the city, we need to motivate newcomers to learn Dutch with free and accessible language education. Yet we will also need to involve new Maastricht residents in local politics as much as possible from the start. This means that strengthening the position of the English language in political and official communication is of great importance.

While young Limburgers are getting better at learning English, their knowledge of German and French is deteriorating. This is a major problem for a region whose entire economy is linked to that of Belgium and Germany. The earlier children learn languages, the more they become open to develop these skills later. Volt wants primary schools in Maastricht and the rest of South Limburg to be able to start offering at least one of the two border languages, French and German.

Volt advocates affordable and accessible courses in English, German, French, Dutch and Limburgish for everyone. In partnerships (such as with the university, Hogeschool Zuyd, Alliance Française and the Goethe Institut), the city can encourage border work and invite non-native speakers to integrate into our local economy.

Volt wants to make broad efforts to promote meeting places between Dutch, Limburg, English and other lingual communities. We live in an international border city: this should be our strength, not our weakness. Therefore, it is vital that we continue to build bridges between our Maastricht communities. This is how Volt organised the bilingual, municipal citizens' council pilot. Do you have ideas for multilingual citizen participation? Then contact: jessica_sleijpen@volteuropa.org

Out of 342 Dutch municipalities, Maastricht ranks number 246. That is embarrassingly low. A good goal would be to get Maastricht to number 170 by 2026. Then we would belong - narrowly - to the top 50% of green municipalities. This suits our green ambitions and should be a realisable short-term goal before we take bigger steps.

Maastricht-Aachen Airport should become a thing of the past. Our European region, between Eindhoven, Cologne and Brussels, is choked with airports. MAA has become an unnecessary facility that causes a lot of inconvenience. Besides closing this airport, we want to put much more effort into good public transport with Belgium and Germany.

Volt wants to work with local experts to realise as many walking and cycling routes as possible throughout Maastricht. An important focus would be a pedestrian and bicycle connection (as a bridge or tunnel) between Sint Maartenslaan and Meerssenerweg.

P&R (Park & Ride) should be a means to achieve the bigger goals in Maastricht: a major greening catch-up for the city and the beginning of a car-free city centre. At the end of the council period, it will be necessary to evaluate whether the P+R proposals have actually achieved those goals.

Volt wants more bicycle parking and facilities for shared bicycles in the city centre and beyond the centre. One such concrete ambition would be Volt's desire to set up and operate the Vrijthof garage primarily for use by permit holders, after the Q-Park contract expires. The rest of the car park can then be used for bicycle parking.

Volt wants to make Maastricht more sustainable and better connected by public transport. In doing so, Volt wants to learn as much as possible from other European cities. Volt wants a Maastricht Green Deal with a car-free and bicycle-friendly centre, where visitors park on the outskirts of the city, urban greenery is cleverly deployed and residents are actively assisted in reducing energy. Curious about our ideas, or do you have your own green ideas? Then email jessica_sleijpen@volteuropa.org

Volt wants a car-free city centre. The coalition says it wants to do this in agreement with residents and business owners, but it does not clearly define when agreement exists. Our short-term goal is to make the city centre significantly more car-free by making Wyck as car-free as possible by 2026, within the frameworks adopted by the council. This policy has to be implemented in such a way that it can be extended to other parts of the city in the future.

Volt sees that Maastricht residents often would love to save energy, but do not always know exactly howto. Volt therefore wants to actively inform homeowners about ways to reduce energy consumption by making the municipality's energy desk more visible.

Volt is committed to a more reasonable water management. This can prevent flooding and drought.

It is time for Democracy 2.0! Elections are a direct way for Maastricht citizens to change our politics once every four years. But, a Maastricht Citizens' Council offers an opportunity to engage directly with each other, connecting different groups of Maastricht citizens. Thanks to Volt, Maastricht has had a successful pilot Citizens' Council. The task now is to take citizens' proposals seriously and make the Maastricht Citizens' Council a permanent institution.

Volt plans to organise several member councils that will involve Maastricht citizens in setting up the new election programme.

Volt values better communication from the municipality. Especially when it comes to communicating well to non-native speakers of Maastricht. This applies to international students but especially to newcomers who speak neither Dutch nor English. They fulfil an extremely fragile role in our society.

Volt intends to continue its efforts to provide more accessible information on decision-making processes, continuous clear accountability on these processes, and more open communication that ensures that participation between citizens and the political system improves.

Volt wants the City of Maastricht to have a lobby register, based on the existing European Union's model, so citizens can see which interest groups engage with executives and other officials.

Volt wants politics to be a safer place for city councillors. This remains a sensitive issue that we should take up as much as possible with political colleagues from other parties.

Volt wants, firstly, to attract more women and diverse genders in Volt's politics, and, secondly, to attract more women and other genders outside Volt into South Limburg politics.

The desirability of a European vision for Maastricht is nowhere explicitly stated by the Coalition, but is breathed by both the Coalition agreement. It is important for our European policy to have a basic document, as is the case for all other major cities.

Volt remains committed, in the short term, to aligning new legislation and frameworks in Maastricht as much as possible with the reality of our border region: both by identifying opportunities as well as obstacles in our region. In the long term, Volt wants these political decisions to be subject to border impact assessments.

Volt wants social policies, such as the Tozo, to also become retroactively available to frontier workers who are entitled to them. Until cross-border workers are properly protected, as other Europeans are, our local economy falters and Europe's promise fails.

Volt is the party for borderlanders on the Dutch, Belgian and German sides of the border. Whether they are entrepreneurs, workers, students or schoolchildren, by borderlanders we mean all people who need to cross borders on a weekly basis. Our task is to represent this, often forgotten, group of Europeans in politics as much as possible. Ideas to improve our borderland policies? Please do contact jessica_sleijpen@volteuropa.org !

Volt wants to revive the old Three Country Train plan. At the moment, that seems to be working, as the old project, between Liège, Maastricht, Heerlen and Aachen, is finally back on track (literally)! However, to really improve that connect, the train would have to make fewer stops; it currently takes an hour to get to Aachen, whereas it could do so in half an hour. Finally, this train should run four times, instead of once, an hour.

Between Maastricht, Heerlen and Sittard-Geleen, Volt wants to run intercity train connections via a metro schedule: every 10 minutes, from city to city, within 15 minutes and until two o'clock at night. This will create a dynamic commuting relationship within South Limburg's urbanised triangle. This will also solve much of the housing crisis in Maastricht, as well as the exodus in Sittard-Geleen and Parkstad, as it will become much easier to commute between these three cities.

Thanks to Volt, there is an executive department for European Affairs in the current executive board, including civil workers' support. It is very important that this portfolio becomes a permanent feature in future executive boards. This way, we ensure that cross-border cooperation (in economy, culture, security or other areas) does not remain to be stuck in incidental meetings but becomes a permanent feature within our municipality.

Many people still do not realise that Volt is a truly pan-European movement. Volt Maastricht and Volt Zuid-Limburg therefore continue to actively work to strengthen cooperation with Belgian, German and European party colleagues as much as possible.

Volt's long-term ambition is a Meuse-Rhine Culture Fund, in which part of the municipal culture budget focuses on making connections with and between Limburg, Liège and Aachen residents. Other municipalities should be motivated to participate in this fund. This will also ensure that our border region has a distinctive sound in competing with cultural industries from metropolitan areas.

Volt wants to take the initiative in starting a Euroregional museum card, for which Aachen, East Belgium and Parkstad already participated in a two-year pilot in 2019. We do not want this museum card to be attempted through bureaucratic, Euroregional ways, as that often does not work. Instead, we ask which cities want to participate: be it Aachen, Heerlen, Eupen and/or Liège. The important thing is a start!

One of the most weighty arguments against further internationalisation is the fear that this development has little positive effect on retaining graduates in the region. Volt sees this differently. We are in favour of preserving all space for South Limburg educational institutions to ensure internationalisation, and for much more investment in retaining and integrating international graduates.

While Volt welcomes political calls to lobby for more Dutch national money towards Euroregional security policy, we would also like to see more concrete security cooperation between the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium in our cross-border region. Volt tries to work for this as much as possible in integrated security policy in Maastricht, the South Limburg security region and the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion.