The Committee of Ministers can draw up agreements which will then be subject to the signature and parliamentary ratification of the Benelux countries (and/or their sub-state institutions). These agreements can cover all subjects, including in policy areas that are not yet covered by cooperation within the Benelux Union. As a European pioneer, Benelux cooperation takes many steps to remove existing barriers and efforts are being made to communicate to border workers throughout the Benelux border region, reliably and accessiblely, via a specific website startpuntgrensarbeid.benelux.int Benelux, a union of states covering three neighbouring countries in north-west Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The name of the union was born from the accession to the first two or three letters of each country – Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg – and was first used to mention the customs agreement that originally led to the Union. It is now used more generally to refer to the geographical, economic and cultural grouping of the three countries. In 1951, these countries joined West Germany, France and Italy to create the European Coal and Steel Community, the predecessor of the European Economic Community and the current European Union. The main institutions of the Union are the Committee of Ministers, Parliament, the Council of the Union, the Court of Justice, the General Secretariat, the Intellectual Property Organization. The Secretary General of Benelux is based in Brussels. It is the central administrative pillar of the Benelux Economic Union. He manages the secretariat of the Committee of Ministers, the Council of the Economic Union and the various committees and working groups. It also provides the register of the Benelux Court.

At the end of the 50 years, the governments of the three Benelux countries decided to extend the agreement taking into account new aspects of Benelux cooperation – such as security – and Belgium`s new federal government structure. The original founding treaty, which expires in 2010, was replaced by a new legal framework (the Treaty Revision Treaty establishing the Benelux Economic Union), signed on 17 June 2008. The organization of post-war Europe through regional agreements has its origins in the Benelux Agreement, the first of its kind, born of the Second World War and concluded in 1958 as a treaty. Negotiations between Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg delegates began during the Second World War in exile in London. An economic agreement between them was signed on 21 October 1943, while they were still under German occupation. On 5 September 1944, a transitional bilateral customs agreement continued to link the three countries. The reflections behind these documents were clear. The future economic union between the Netherlands-Belgium-Luxembourg should contribute to the emergence of a stable European monetary system and, finally, to a stable global monetary system, embodied by the Bretton Woods Conference. In Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, the Belgian and Dutch delegations adopted a common position in 1944 and spoke of a common future for small European states in international economic matters. The four acts are subject to unanimous approval by the members of the Committee of Ministers (and, in the case of agreements, subsequent signature and ratification at the national level). The Benelux Union (Dutch: Benelux United; [4] French: Union Benelux; [5] Luxembourg: Benelux-Unioun,[6] is also a political-economic union and formal intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring countries in Western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

[7] The name Benelux is a Portmanteau, from the association of the first letters of each country – Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg – and which was first used to quote the customs agreement initiated by the Union (signed in 1944). [8] It is now widely used to refer to the geographical, economic and cultural grouping of the three countries.