Never a dull moment
Within our project office, we use a phrase to indicate when something unexpected has come our way. ‘Never a dull moment’. Not a new phrase, but after it was once exclaimed within our ranks by our colleague Arjen, it has since been lovingly misused by the whole club when things get tough. As Mondays are our consultation day, those moments often coincide with the first working day of the week. The phrase has therefore now become ‘Never a dull Monday’.
We are regularly asked whether we have been mandated by the countries in the Meuse-Rhine Euregio (EMR) to position a vertex in each country or federal state. The answer is no! So that isn’t the case. The site that will later emerge as the most promising from our feasibility study will also be given pride of place in the bid book. So much for this possible misunderstanding.
We also see increasing interest from the highest levels of government in the EMR countries. Recently, the four ministers of economic affairs of Wallonia, Flanders, North Rhine-Westphalia and the Netherlands, and, on behalf of federal Belgium, the Belgian ambassador to the Netherlands, were our guests in Maastricht. They visited the ETpathfinder and discussed the opportunities for innovative business in the field of valorisation.
On the Dutch side, Team NL has been established, designed to go all out for the Einstein Telescope and leave nothing to chance. Our project has even been granted ‘of national importance’ status in the Netherlands. Former diplomat and parliamentarian Sjoerd Sjoerdsma is leading the way for the Netherlands, with the aim of getting as many other European countries as possible behind our EMR candidacy.
Walloon Minister Pierre-Yves Jeholet has a Walloon ET team in the starting blocks. He was not the only minister to visit Hannover Messe. His Flemish colleague, Prime Minister Matthias Diependaele, also took a look at our cross-border stand at Hannover Messe, where the Belgian ministers also met State Secretary Gonca Türkeli-Dehnert of North Rhine-Westphalia.
And I myself was given the opportunity to explain the importance of the Einstein Telescope in four parliaments over a one-month period: to representatives in the Bundestag in Berlin, to committee members of the federal Belgian Chamber of Representatives, to members of a joint committee of the Flemish Parliament, and to a committee of the Benelux Inter-Parliamentary Assembly. A delegation from the East-Belgian Parliament also visited to be updated on the latest state of affairs, as did the mayors of the municipalities in our search area. The next conference of EMR science ministers is now in preparation. In short, all signs indicate that the Einstein Telescope is a matter of interest to many people.
We still have over a year and a half before our bid book is due. That may still seem quite long, but we definitely need that time. And one thing that I am also sure of is that we will undoubtedly have many more ‘Never a dull moment’ events. And not just on Mondays.
— Hans Plets
