Auction → Grenoble, Benelux

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  AuctionAn auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition exist and are described in the section about different types. The branch of economic theory dealing with auction types and participants' behavior in auctions is called auction theory. The open ascending price auction is arguably the most common form of auction and has been used throughout history. Participants bid openly against one another, with each subsequent bid being higher than the previous bid. An auctioneer may announce prices, while bidders submit bids vocally or electronically. Auctions are applied for trade in diverse contexts. These contexts include antiques, paintings, rare collectibles, expensive wines, commonly traded goods, livestock, radio spectrum, used cars, real estate, online advertising, vacation packages, emission trading, and many more.
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  GrenobleGrenoble is the prefecture and largest city of the Isère department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France. It was the capital of the Dauphiné historical province and lies where the river Drac flows into the Isère at the foot of the French Alps. The population of the commune of Grenoble was 156,140 as of 2023, while the population of the Grenoble metropolitan area was 724,742 in 2022, which makes it the largest metropolis in the Alps, ahead of Innsbruck and Bolzano. A significant European scientific centre, the city advertises itself as the "Capital of the Alps", due to its size and its proximity to the mountains. The many suburban communes that make up the rest of the metropolitan area include four with populations exceeding 20,000: Saint-Martin-d'Hères, Échirolles, Fontaine and Voiron. Grenoble's history goes back over 2,000 years, to a time when it was a village of the Allobroges Gallic tribe. It became the capital of the Dauphiné in the 11th century. This status, consolidated by the annexation to France, allowed it to develop its economy. Grenoble then became a parliamentary and military city, close to the border with Savoy, which at the time was part of the Holy Roman Empire. Industrial development increased the prominence of Grenoble through several periods of economic expansion over the last three centuries. This started with a booming glove industry in the 18th and 19th centuries, continued with the development of a strong hydropower industry in the late 19th to early 20th centuries, and ended with a post-World War II economic boom symbolized by the holding of the X Olympic Winter Games in 1968. The city has grown to be one of Europe's most important research, technology and innovation centres, with one in five inhabitants working directly in these fields. Grenoble was classified as a global city with the ranking of "sufficiency" by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network until 2024. The city held the title of European Green Capital in 2022.
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  BeneluxThe Benelux Union, or simply Benelux, is a politico-economic union, alliance and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring states in Western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The name is a syllabic abbreviation formed from the initial syllable of each country's name and was first used to name the customs agreement that initiated the union. It is now used more generally to refer to the geographic, economic, and cultural grouping of the three countries. The Benelux is an economically dynamic and densely populated region, with 5.6% of the European population and 7.9% of the joint EU GDP (€36,000/resident) on 1.7% of the whole surface of the EU. In 2015, 37% of the total number of EU cross-border workers worked in the Benelux; 35,000 Belgian residents work in Luxembourg, while 37,000 others 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. The Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP) covers the same land but is not part of the Benelux Union. However, as from June 2018, the Benelux Court of Justice has the competence to judge BOIP's decisions in appeal. 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 Ariadne Petridis from Belgium and there are two deputies: Deputy Secretary-General Liesje Schreinemacher from the Netherlands and Deputy Secretary-General Tom Köller from Luxembourg. The presidency of the Benelux is held in turn by the three countries for a period of one year. The Netherlands hold the presidency for 2026. About 80 percent of the population of the Benelux countries speaks Dutch as a native language, around 20 percent speaks French, and approximately 1 percent speaks Luxembourgish as a first language. A small minority, under 1 percent, are native German speakers.

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