On 15 March 2021 the 26th Franco-Spanish summit was held in Montauban, the first to be held between the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and the President of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez. As well as an agreement on recognition of dual nationality and management of the Covid crisis, cross-border issues were at the heart of the discussions.
At the request of the French Federation of Alpine and Mountaineering Clubs, the MOT assisted – between April 2019 and November 2020 – the partners in the Interreg project "ENTREPYR II" in the choice and implementation of a cross-border legal structure to ensure the long-term future of cross-border cooperation regarding mountain shelters in the Pyrenees.
In October 2020, the MOT was tasked by the National Agency for Territorial Cohesion and the Banque des Territoires as an “action partner” in the national programme “Small Towns of Tomorrow”.
Since 31 January 2021, anyone entering France, including from other European countries, must be in possession of a negative Covid test obtained within the previous 72 hours. However, this obligation does not apply to the inhabitants of cross-border living areas (for journeys lasting less than 24 hours) or to cross-border workers.
“The Pyrenees have long bound us together”
Since 19 October 2020, a single European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) has brought together Aragon, the Province of Huesca and the Hautes-Pyrénées and Pyrénées-Atlantiques Departments.
Mountain areas represent over 40% of France’s borders. Among France’s mountain ranges, three of them are located in border regions: the Jura, the Pyrenees and the Alps. This new brochure sets out their common cross-border issues and challenges, while also highlighting concrete cross-border projects.
Following the adoption of the first four Cross-Border Cooperation Strategies (Schémas de Coopération Transfrontalière – SCT) by the Nice, Strasbourg and Lille Metropolises, as well as by the Basque Country Conurbation Community, the MOT and its partners embarked on the drafting of a preliminary assessment of these initiatives that has resulted in a publication, co-written with each of these groupings of municipalities.
At the “10 years of the EGTC Platform” (RT#3 of the Borders Forum), an emblematic example in Europe will be celebrated: the Cerdanya Cross-Border Hospital EGTC, with the participation of François Calvet, Senator for the Pyrénées-Orientales Department and President of its support committee. At the height of the health crisis, this, the first cross-border hospital in Europe demonstrated the benefits and effectiveness of cross-border cooperation in the area of healthcare.
In the context of the health crisis, all of the neighbouring countries have sought to encourage homeworking. Good news for cross-border workers: the legal uncertainty regarding the social security system governing cross-border workers has been removed until 31 December 2020.
The MOT has published an analysis of the consequences for cross-border territories of the health crisis – the result of a call for experiences issued to all of its members. Organised in three main parts, it aims to set out the impacts, difficulties and initiatives linked to the management of the Covid-19 health crisis in cross-border territories.
While a circular issued by France’s Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, dated 12 May has just extended France’s internal border controls until 31 October 2020,1 there have been growing calls to give attention to the difficulties faced in border territories, notably for the 360,000 cross-border workers who cross the French border every day to work in a neighbouring country.
"The coronavirus crisis is putting our European ideals to the test, and obliges us to invent tomorrow’s world. We need to think, in the design of our policies, about the impact of our decisions on our neighbours."
The MOT has published on its website and on social media a series of maps showing the situation with respect to the easing of lockdown measures along France’s borders.
On 15 December 2018, the Basque Country Community approved a “cross-border cooperation” competence. Drawing on the Cross-Border Cooperation Strategy approach, it embarked on a consultative process to draw up its cross-border cooperation strategy up to 2030. The objective was to codesign cross-border public policy and to be aligned with the framework of the forthcoming 2021-2027 European programming period.
As of March 18, Spain is the second most affected country in Europe by the COVID-19 epidemic with 13,910 diagnosed cases and 623 deaths. Since midnight March 17, Spain's land borders have been closed "in order to reduce the number of people infected with the virus both nationally and in Europe," according to Spanish Minister of Interior Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
At the 2019 edition of the European Week of Regions and Cities, which brought together over 9,000 participants in Brussels, the MOT ran a workshop entitled "No country is an island: joint cross-border strategies for a clean energy transition".
As part of the process of drawing up its Cross-Border Cooperation Plan, the Basque Country Community (CAPB) ran "cross-border cooperation workshops", in Bayonne on 20 September and in San Sebastian on 25 September, with support from the MOT and the Atlantic and Pyrenees Urban Planning Agency (AUDAP).
In the context of the preparation of its 2021-2027 programmes, DG REGIO has drawn up 38 Border Orientation Papers (BOPs) for all of the EU’s land borders. Six of these BOPs relate to France’s borders.
In 2015, more than 360,000 inhabitants of border areas in France worked in a neighbouring country, near to the border. The economic dynamism of neighbouring countries such as Luxembourg, Switzerland and Monaco, together with the salaries offered, have encouraged working-age people living in France’s border areas to go and work there.
The results of this project were presented on 16 May 2019 in Biarritz. Launched in 2016, it has built a network of economic players to stimulate businesses’ innovation and competitiveness across three neighbouring territories: Euskadi, Navarra and Aquitaine.
With the support of the MOT, Lille, Strasbourg and Nice are the three French border region metropolises that have embarked on drawing up a "Schéma de cooperation transfrontalière" (Cross-Border Cooperation Strategie, CCS), introduced by the Maptam Act* in 2014. Through its network, the MOT enables the three metropolises to share experiences and information regarding their methodologies, the obstacles encountered and the local political contexts, as well as to relay their needs to the national and European authorities.
The latest publication by the French Network of Urban Planning Agencies (FNAU), entitled "L'Europe par les territoires" (“Europe by its territories”) feeds into the debate about Europe and provides different views on the issues relating to cohesion policy and the way in which cities and territories have appropriated the European ideal and the tools of this policy. The MOT contributed to it and several cross-border territories are showcased in it.
The cross-border dimension was at the heart of the ESPON seminar “New Narratives for Territorial Development” which took place in Vienna on 5-6 December 2018.
The members of the Working Community of the Pyrenees have formalised an innovative new instrument for cross-border cooperation and development, named “Pyrenean Strategy”. Its priorities include the preservation of the Pyrenees’ biodiversity, the adaptation of territories to global warming, combating desertification, and access to mobility.
