Highly attentive to citizens’ concerns sparked by the four themes of the Great National Debate in the cross-border regions, where national issues sit alongside dynamics that transcend the border, the MOT wished to take part in this unprecedented exchange of views by contributing its concrete proposals.
The new Franco-German Assembly, set up in parallel with the Aachen Treaty, held its first session on 25 March in Paris. It will bring together at least twice a year 100 French and German parliamentarians in equal numbers, meeting in turn in France and Germany.
ADEUS (the Strasbourg Conurbation Development and Urban Planning Agency) and the heads of the two cities on either side of the Rhine held a conference in Strasbourg on 27 February entitled: “What are the issues facing a cross-border metropolitan area Strasbourg- Karlsruhe and their Eurodistricts?”. The presentations are now available.
To mark its general assembly in Annemasse and Geneva, the MOT is publishing a special issue of its newsletter focusing on Greater Geneva.
The European Cross-Border Grouping (Groupement Transfrontalier Européen) is a non-profit association that represents 32,500 cross-border workers along the Franco-Swiss border.
The French decree establishing the European Territorial Authority of Alsace through the merger of the Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin Departments was published on 28 February. The new authority will come into being on 1 February 2021.
The European Parliament and Member States have reached an agreement on the creation of a new “European Labour Authority” to protect workers’ rights and launch cross-border investigations in the event of possible abuses.
At the 16th Greater Region Summit on 30 January 2019, the Greater Region Executives argued for "ambitious territorial cooperation and a Europe that listens to its citizens".
The Basel Trinational Eurodistrict brings together the three countries of the Basel conurbation with over 900,000 inhabitants. A member of the MOT since 2005, it was the first trinational Eurodistrict to be created in Europe.
The "Cross-Border Metropolitan Regions" Initiative, which works on developing cross-border cooperation along Germany’s borders, has just published a position paper on the European Commission’s proposal to create a "mechanism to resolve legal and administrative obstacles in a cross-border context".
"Belgium is often perceived to be an attractive country for highly-skilled expatriates […]. But the Franco-Belgian border is also an area where migrations by households belonging to the middle classes have become more frequent and more commonplace, as a result of changes in property and labour markets."
On 22 January in Aachen, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Emmanuel Macron signed a new treaty on cooperation and integration between Germany and France.
The Aachen Treaty marks a real recognition of cross-border cooperation as a central element in European construction. The fourth chapter, which is entirely devoted to cross-border cooperation, was drafted with active participation from the MOT.
By means of a communication campaign, the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs is showcasing Franco-German cooperation:
Under the aegis of the General Commission for Territorial Equality (CGET) on the French side and the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community on the German side, the MOT and the BBSR* have coordinated the production of a brochure entitled “France-Germany: cross-border observation at the heart of Europe”.
The "b-solutions” initiative is one of the actions supported by DG REGIO within the framework of the Communication “Boosting growth and cohesion in EU border regions” of September 2017. Its aim is to identify and promote sustainable methods for overcoming legal and/or administrative obstacles encountered along the internal land borders of the European Union.
The 2019 Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Transport call for proposals has been launched by the European Commission.
Created by the common desire of the presidents of eight Public Entities of Intermunicipal Cooperation, the new “North Lorraine Border Region Metropolitan Pole” was launched on 9 January 2019 in Thionville.
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.
Andreas Faludi, Professor Emeritus and guest researcher, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. Published by Elgar Studies in Planning Theory, Policy and Practice, November 2018.
A new issue of INSEE Première published in January 2019 focuses on the different engines of demographic growth on either side of France’s borders.
Signed on 1 February 2019 by the Minister for the Ecological Transition, François de Rugy, and the French and German regional players, this “territorial project” is designed to accompany the economic redevelopment of the area around the nuclear power station in Fessenheim, whose two reactors are due to be shut down in the summer of 2020.
The 2019 European Conference on the Energy Transition took place on 22-24 January in Dunkirk, bringing together nearly 3,500 participants around the topic “Committed and mutually-supportive territories”. The MOT contributed to the discussions by organising a workshop illustrating three very concrete examples of cross-border cooperation in the area of the energy transition.
