The Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs has launched a call for projects promoting decentralised cooperation, within which cross-border cooperation has been identified as a priority area.
On 9-10 November 2017, the MOT took part in the final conference of a project on the observation of cross-border territories along Germany's borders.
During the 15th edition of the European Week of Regions and Cities, which was held between 9 and 12 October 2017 in Brussels on the topic of cooperation “working for a better future”, numerous workshops addressed European territorial cooperation. Notably, the MOT team participated in the workshops “Regional and intermediate policy makers, drivers for maritime cooperation” and “Enhancing capacities of regions and cities for better cross-border cooperation”.
In the context of its partnership with the CNFPT (French National Centre for the Territorial Civil Service), the MOT organised, with a number of partners, different training sessions.
In the presence of Michel Delebarre, President of the MOT, and a number of elected officials, the meeting of the MOT’s steering committee was the occasion to take stock of the organisation’s different activities, and to discuss the future triennial programme for the years 2018-2020.
This publication, to which the MOT has contributed, notably by producing the maps, aims to take stock of cross-border cooperation in the field of health and the evolution of Europe’s role in the healthcare sector in global terms, by focussing on 7 experiences in Europe and by looking closely at the French-Belgian situation.
Developed over the course of the 2007-2013 programming period, the ESPON territorial impact assessment tool aims to support political decision-makers in identifying the potential territorial impacts of EU policies and legislative proposals in the regions.
In light of the elaboration of a new European strategy for the “outermost regions” (ORs), the Regional Development Commission of the European Parliament published a report in March 2017 to promote cohesion and development in the ORs by applying article 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) in an innovative and positive manner.
On the occasion of the URBACT City Festival in Tallinn, which ran from 3 to 5 October, the PACA (concerted metropolitan development areas) process implemented by Greater Geneva has been selected and labelled “Good Practice”.
Following the signing on 27 September 2016 of the framework agreement on cross-border health cooperation between France and Switzerland, the first morning of reflection organised by the Trans-Jura Conference, which brought together elected officials and cross-border health cooperation stakeholders, aimed to take stock of existing cross-border cooperation in the field of health and to determine the desired areas for future cooperation.
The MOT participated in the seminar on maritime cooperation, organised within the framework of the PASSAGE project, in Tallinn in September.
On 20 and 21 September 2017 in Brussels, a conference was held to mark the adoption of the Communication entitled “Boosting growth and cohesion in EU border regions”.
On 19 June 2017, new conventions were signed between the President of the Council of State of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, François Longchamp, and the President of the Agglomeration community of Annemasse ,Christian Dupessey, enabling the Swiss Confederation’s participation in the financing of 3 Greater Geneva flagship projects, at a level of 26 million euros.
Every year, the MOT publishes a dossier highlighting exemplary cross-border projects along French borders.
Over the course of the first meeting of the Conference of the Territories (a new platform for exchange, consultation and decision-making headed by the French prime minister), Emmanuel Macron presented the new differentiation of public action, a vector for a new equality of opportunity for the territories.
People-to-people (P2P) projects are small-scale projects, accessible to a wide range of beneficiaries, oriented towards the promotion of contact and exchanges between people from either side of the border.
Within the context of the regional accord for the application of the Espoo Convention (1991) in a tri-national framework, the French-German-Swiss Upper Rhine Conference has published a guide to procedures for cross-border consultations concerning projects, plans and programmes with significant impact on the environment.
Long seen as artificial barriers inherited from decolonisation, West African borders now lie at the heart of policies designed to encourage regional trade and combat political instability.
In association with the Grand Est regional council, the AFIGEO (French Association for Geographic Information) and the CNIG (French National Council for Geographic Information) took the INSPIRE European Conference of 4 and 5 September as an opportunity to bring together French-speaking players of the profession in the context of a “Francophone conference on geographic information”.
Good quality healthcare for the populations of the French-Luxembourgish border regions, made more accessible, more rapid and closer to home - this is the objective of the framework agreement on health cooperation ratified by Luxembourg and France.
On 30 May 2017 at the Committee of the Regions in Brussels, the fifth meeting of the intergovernmental working group on innovative solutions to obstacles to cross-border cooperation was held.
This report was drawn up within the framework of the strengthening and deepening of Franco-Belgian cooperation initiated by the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Prefecture.
This is the aim of the project FagA/Centre d’aide à la mobilité transfrontalière (CAMT – Centre for Assistance with Cross-Border Mobility) launched on 1 July 2016 in the SaarMoselle Eurodistrict.
On 31 May 2017, Anne Sander, MEP and Vice-President of the MOT, organised the sixth meeting of the working group on cross-border cooperation, which addressed the issue of the coordination of social security systems in the context of the revision underway of Regulation No. 883/2004, which lays down the common rules required for this coordination.
