ASML pledges €5m a year for Eindhoven Rijksmuseum branch
The chip equipment maker will give €5m a year for 20 years to the planned Rijksmuseum branch, which is meant to lift culture in the growing Brainport region around Eindhoven.
ASML will contribute €5m a year for twenty years, about €100m in total, to the Rijksmuseum branch planned in Eindhoven. The company and the municipality signed a letter of intent on Wednesday at ASML's head office in Veldhoven.
The museum is planned in a green area on the banks of the Dommel, close to Eindhoven railway station. The Rijksmuseum and the municipality announced the branch in December last year. Eindhoven has set aside €2.7m to design and prepare it.
At that time the plan assumed construction costs of €80m and annual running costs of €10m to €13m. Since then the city council has asked for a more ambitious plan. Mayor Jeroen Dijsselbloem said the museum would get "a bit more space" than planned.
Dijsselbloem foresees "a renaissance for culture in Eindhoven". Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbits called ASML's amount "exceptional in Europe". He told ASML executive Frank Heemskerk that joining something not yet fully defined "shows a pioneering spirit and trust".
Heemskerk said ASML sees success as more than growth and jobs: "Success is also inspiration and connection. And so culture. The Brainport region is a world-class region. It also deserves world-class cultural institutions."
ASML pledged a contribution last year in the hope that others would follow. Dijsselbloem said other investors have since done so, but they are holding back their final yes until the plans are more concrete. Talks with the province of Noord-Brabant and the cabinet on possible contributions are under way. Next year the Eindhoven municipal executive will present a cooperation agreement with the Rijksmuseum to the city council.
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intentieovereenkomst
A letter of intent is a preliminary document in which parties record what they intend to agree before signing a final contract. It sets out the main points and the next steps, and it is usually not a full binding contract, although some clauses, such as confidentiality or cost arrangements, may be binding. In the Netherlands, public bodies and companies often use it to show commitment to a project before the detailed agreements are made.
Brainport regio
The Brainport region is the name for the area around Eindhoven in the south of the Netherlands, in the province of North Brabant. It is known as a high-tech and innovation hub, with many technology companies, including ASML, and research institutions such as Eindhoven University of Technology. The name is widely used by local government, businesses and institutions when they talk about the region's economy and its development.