Border: France-Germany

Border: France-Germany

Date(s) of establishment: 1648 (Treaty of Westphalia); 1945 (current demarcation)
Length of border: 451 km
Regions concerned: France: Grand Est Region ; Departments – Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin, Moselle;

Germany: Länder – Saarland, Rheinland-Pfalz, Baden-Württemberg

European programme(s):

Overview

France-Germany

Introduction

On 22 January 1963, General de Gaulle and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer signed the Élysée Treaty, contributing to an irrevocable commitment of France and Germany to peace and friendship between their peoples and Europe.

In 1975, the French-German-Swiss intergovernmental agreement created an intergovernmental committee to facilitate the study of cross-border issues and the finding of solutions.

This cooperation is structured around two territories: the Upper Rhine region in the Rhine basin and the Greater Region in the basin formed by the Moselle and the Saar.

The entities involved in the cooperation thus extend well beyond the French-German border, encompassing Switzerland in the case of the Upper Rhine, and Luxembourg and Belgium in the case of the Greater Region. The two areas have active cooperation bodies and players at the level of the national borders, but also at regional and local levels. Three cross-border conurbations form integrated urban spaces: the Basel Trinational Eurodistrict, the Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurodistrict and the SaarMoselle Eurodistrict. The latter two are organised as European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC). Two other cross-border structures at local level are the REGIO PAMINA Eurodistrict and the Freiburg Region-Central and Southern Alsace Eurodistrict.

The numerous projects that have been developed within these territories, such as the “Science Offensive” (“Offensive Sciences” in French) and the INFOBEST network, attest to the success of this cooperation and constitute model projects that have been imitated in other border areas.


Territory projects and institutional bodies for cooperation

Institutional cooperation at the state level

Aachen Treaty - Franco-German Cross-Border Cooperation Committee
Franco-Germano-Swiss Intergovernmental Commission

Cross-border cooperation at the regional level

Tri-national Metropolitan Region of the Upper Rhine
Upper Rhine Conference
Upper Rhine Council
Greater Region

Cross-border cooperation at the local level

Basel Trinational Eurodistrict
Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurodistrict
Freiburg region-Central and Southern Alsace Eurodistrict
Eurodistrict PAMINA
SaarMoselle Eurodistrict
Network of Cities of the Upper Rhine

Cooperation between protected natural areas

Vosges du Nord–Pfälzerwald Transfrontier Biosphere Reserve