More than 300 participants met on December 2nd and 3rd at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris for the Bor-ders Forum, organised under the patronage of French President Emmanuel Macron by the Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière.
As part of the Hungarian Presidency of the EU, the MOT took part in the ‘Art of Cooperation’ conference held in Budapest from November 13th to 15th. Dedicated to the future of European territorial cooperation, it was the occasion for the official launch of the ‘European cross-border platform’, an initiative of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and its partners CESCI, AEBR and the MOT, designed to bring together all those involved in cross-border cooperation at European level.
The Borders Forum 2024 is delighted to welcome Gabrielle Halpern, philosopher and specialist in the concept of hybridisation. Her work examines the intellectual, social and political boundaries that structure our societies. We asked her three questions that offer a glimpse at the discussions of the two round tables on the first day of the event.
As part of its mission to analyse and support border territories, the MOT is launching a new series of publications dedicated to cross-border monitoring. This first issue is devoted to a key topic: the dynamics of the economy and employment in cross-border contexts, and more specifically the flows of cross-border workers on the French borders. In French only.
At the beginning of October, the French government relaunched negotiations on the unemployment insurance agreement, handing over the reins to the social partners and calling for ‘additional savings of 400 million euros from next year’, while suggesting that the issue of cross-border workers, who ‘receive much higher salaries in certain neighbouring countries, particularly Switzerland and Luxembourg’, should be examined.
Managed by the MOT and the AEBR on behalf of the DG REGIO, the "Resilient Borders" call for projects aims to select ten pilot sites to develop crisis management plans or actions to promote concerted cross-border spatial planning, with financial support from the European Commission. The deadline is 30 November.
On October 18th, 2024, a Franco-Swiss symposium on human resources in the health sector was held, organised by the French Ministry of Health and Access to Care and the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH). The aim was to bring together representatives of healthcare professionals and administrations, as well as members of parliament and local councillors from areas on the Franco-Swiss border.
On November 4th, 2024, a conference entitled ‘Planning the cross-border functional area’ was held in Luxembourg, organised jointly by AGAPE, MOT, and the Grand Duchy's Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning, with more than 80 participants in attendance.
A study on the ‘border effect’ around Switzerland, conducted by the Geneva-based FEDRE (Foundation for the Economy and Sustainable Development of the Regions of Europe), sets out ten very concrete proposals in areas such as taxation, culture, health and mobility.
Isabelle Rauch, Member of Parliament for Moselle and regional councillor for the Grand Est region, stated in a press release from October 31st that she was working on a proposal for European legislation to ‘adapt public policies in border areas’. In it, she spoke of ‘appropriate and dedicated political action based on territorial differentiation’.
As the Franco-Spanish hospital celebrates its 10th anniversary, an article of France 3 Régions reports that the Spanish tax authorities are demanding that the hospital's 32 employees pay taxes in Spain, even though they are already subject to taxation in France.
On October 21st, 2024, the Franco-German cross-border cooperation committee (CCC), responsible for analysing the impact of new legislation on border territories, adopted a resolution ‘containing recommendations on the analysis of the cross-border impact of national legislation’.
On October 21st, 2024, the elected representatives of the European Territorial Authority of Alsace (CEA) voted unanimously to introduce a heavy goods vehicle tax for transit traffic.
Each year, the compensation system for cross-border workers represents an additional cost of around 800 M€ for the French unemployment insurance scheme. Following the publication of its report, the Unédic, that manages French unemployment insurance, is calling for a renegotiation of agreements with neighboring countries.
On Monday, October 7th, Jean-René Etchegaray, President of the Basque Country Community (CAPB), and Imanol Pradales, the new President of the Basque Autonomous Community, renewed the memorandum linking the two institutions from October 7th 2019.
At the invitation of its partner, the French Network of Urban Planning Agencies (FNAU), the MOT led a one-day workshop as part of the 45th national meeting of urban planning agencies, which took place in Saint-Omer from the 9th to 11th of October 2024. Organised by an MOT network member, the Pays de Saint-Omer urban planning, development and heritage agency (AUD), the theme of the event was ‘public spaces’.
The MOT and the European Committee of the Regions joined forces during the European Week of Regions and Cities 2024 to offer a political session on the future of maritime cooperation. The full replay of the session is available!
Represented by its vice-president Brigitte Torloting, vice-president of the Grand Est region, the MOT took part in the GART-UTPF conference ‘Which public transport model to facilitate cross-border mobility?’, at the ‘Eu Mobility Expo’ held this year in Strasbourg. This was an opportunity for the MOT to present its position, taken with Objectif RER Métropolitains, on the cross-border dimension of SERM projects.
On September 26th, the French Ministry of Health hosted the closing of the exhibition commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Cerdagne Hospital EGTC - the first cross-border hospital created in Europe.
The Swiss Federal Council adopted its new spatial planning strategy on June 26th, 2024. It aims to strengthen the various functional areas of the country (conurbations, rural and mountain areas) and runs until 2031. How does this strategy take border areas into account? Could France learn from it?
On October 1st, the Collectivité européenne d'Alsace (European Territorial Authority of Alsace) held its 4th partnership meeting in Strasbourg, devoted to the Schéma alsacien de coopération transfrontalière (Alsace cross-border cooperation scheme).
On September 26th, the ‘Sustainable Urban Planning and Development’ Chair at the University of Metz organised a multidisciplinary study day on ‘cross-border living areas’, attended by nearly 150 participants at the Faculty of Law in Metz and online.
The 2024 edition of the Saint-Dié International Geography Festival (FIG), the annual meeting place for French-speaking geographers, will focus on border issues. In addition to this year's theme, ‘Lands’, an opportunity to explore the challenge of ZAN (Net Zero Artificialisation) and its implications, the guest territory for the 2024 edition was a macro-regional area familiar to the MOT network: the Alpine Arc.
More than a hundred stakeholders from all over France gathered in Dunkirk and on the Franco-Belgian border on September 17th and 18th, 2024, for the MOT's general assembly, at the invitation of its members: the Dunkirk Urban Community (Communauté urbaine de Dunkerque), the Nord Department and the Flanders-Dunkirk Urban Planning Agency. The event was an opportunity to highlight the richness and uniqueness of cross-border cooperation on the Franco-Flemish coast, while reaffirming the importance of cooperation in the face of the common challenges faced by border territories!
