On December 1st, 2023, the MOT and the National Agency for Territorial Cohesion (ANCT) co-organised the final webinar presenting the results of the Franco-German MORO pilot project, which was attended by more than 100 people.
The MOT has been commissioned by the SaarMoselle Eurodistrict to support the cross-border territory in implementing the recommendations drawn up during the Franco-German pilot project for spatial planning (MORO).
For almost a year, the MOT, supported by sixteen partners, has been conducting a "cross-border living areas" experiment on five pilot sites on the French borders: PAMINA Eurodistrict (French-German border), the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis (French-Belgian border), Nord Lorrain - Luxembourg (French-Luxembourg border), Southern Alps - Riviera (French-Italian-Monegasque border) and Franco-Vaud-Geneva conurbation (French-Swiss border)
The 2023-2027 State-Region Plan Contract (CPER) for the Grand Est region provides for more than €2.1 billion in funding for its mobility component.
This was the wish expressed by the Franco-German Cross-Border Cooperation Committee (CCT) at its second annual meeting on October 23rd, 2023, in Offenburg, chaired by the Secretaries of State for Europe and General Secretaries for Franco-German Cooperation, Anna Lührmann and Laurence Boone.
Each year, the European Week of Regions and Cities brings together a diverse community of participants for the largest event in Brussels dedicated to cohesion policy. This year's event took place from October 9th to 12th. The MOT organized a workshop on cross-border teleworking and its impact on border regions.
This workshop, organized by the PAMINA Eurodistrict with the participation of the MOT, the Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino Euroregion and the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis, was held on October 11th as part of the European Week of Regions and Cities.
Note a contribution from the MOT on the "SaarMoselle Trade Study: The importance of cooperation" conducted as part of the MORO project. More information on the MORO project.
The project to recover waste heat from the Badische Stahlwerke (BSW), Kehl's steelworks, is now entering its concrete phase.
With the signing of an agreement between Bas-Rhin and Rhineland-Palatinate on September 27th in Mulhouse, French and German firefighters can now work together throughout the cross-border area along the Rhine, in the event of fire or disaster.
In border areas, living and employment areas are closely intertwined. Differences between planning tools and the organisation of the relevant authorities can hamper integrated regional development. These issues were at the heart of "MORO," a Franco-German spatial planning pilot project. In order to report on the results of this project, the ANCT and the MOT are organising a webinar on 1 December entitled "How to move forward with spatial planning in border areas".
At the end of 2022, the European Territorial Authority of Alsace adopted an "Alsace cross-border cooperation plan". In June 2023 it launched a "cross-border cooperation fund" to help finance the projects included in this plan, as well as other projects with a cross-border impact.
A bilateral agreement on cross-border apprenticeships was signed between France and Germany on July 21st, 2023. French and German apprentices will now be able to complete the practical or theoretical part of their training in the neighbouring country.
As part of the Interreg Titan-E project (Trinational Innovation and Technology Advanced Networks of Enterprises), ADEUS has produced a dynamic map of health technologies in the Upper Rhine.
Since September 6th, 2023, the "Kita-Salut" cross-border crèche, located in Saarbrucken and only a 20 minute drive from Sarreguemines, has been welcoming French and German children.
The Platform on the perception of borders, the final product of the FRONTEM project, as well as the toolkit on the five borders studied, have been put online.
The Franco-German Cross-Border Cooperation Committee (CCC) was set up in 2020, in accordance with Article 14 of the Treaty of Aachen signed on January 22nd 2019.
The University of the Greater Region (UniGR) and the University of Luxembourg organised the closing event of the Erasmus+ "EurIdentity Certificate" project and the annual conference on higher education and research in the Greater Region on 27 June 2023 on the Belval campus in Esch-sur-Alzette.
At the invitation of the Moselle department and the Metz Eurometropolis, both members of the MOT network, the MOT's annual event brought together almost 150 participants from all across France over the course of two days, on the 27th and 28th of June.
On the border between France, Germany and Luxembourg, the cross-border territory hosting the MOT’s general assembly on June 27th and 28th, 2023, in Metz is a hub for cross-border news, projects and issues. Joint interview with Patrick Weiten, president of the department of Moselle and former member of Parliament, and François Grosdidier, president of Metz Eurometropolis and mayor of Metz.
Initiated in December 2019, the TRISAN project "Trinational action plan for cross-border healthcare in the Upper Rhine", led by the Euro-Institute, came to an end on May 31st, 2023.
The conference to launch the new cross-border legal access point, located at the heart of the Strasbourg-Kehl conurbation, was held on May 10th, 2023 at the Strasbourg judicial court. Its chairman, Thierry Ghera, gives us his view on this new service, the first of its kind in Europe.
The Treaty of Aachen mandated the Franco-German Cross-Border Cooperation Committee (CBC) to analyse the impact of legislation on border regions, with the aim of avoiding "the emergence of new legal difficulties in everyday cross-border life".
At the conference "Border Region Academy: Border regions of Germany with its neighboring countries" organized by the German Federal Office for Spatial Planning on April 20th and 21st in Berlin, in which the MOT participated, several significant studies for cross-border cooperation were presented.
