The bill approving the Franco-German agreement on cross-border apprenticeships was passed in France on 13 February. Already ratified in Germany in July 2024, this agreement makes it easier for French and German apprentices to complete their practical training in companies on the other side of the border (on the German side in the Länder of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland).
On 3 February 2025, the study ‘Energy planning at the cross-border catchment area level’, proposed in the MOT's 2025 work programme and supported by the Strasbourg Eurometropole, the Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurodistrict and the Banque des territoires, was launched.
As part of the Interreg VI Grande Région programme and the SaarMoselle functional area, the MOT is a beneficiary partner in the PRISMA project (‘Projet d'aménagement d'information et d'observation pour un projet d'agglomération SaarMoselle’) for a period of three years, from 2024 to 2026.
Find out about the observation resource sites that were presented!
In 2021, border workers travel an average of 34 km to get to work, compared with 14 km for non-border workers living in the same areas. The majority go by car. 18% of them have journeys of 50 km or more, and there are significantly more of these long journeys than in 2010.
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.
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.
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 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).
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.
The signing of the third amendment to the MOSAR agreement on September 18th, 2024 marks a new milestone in cross-border healthcare cooperation between Moselle and Saarland.
On Monday September 16th, Germany reintroduced border controls for six months to combat illegal immigration, drawing criticism from within the European Union (EU) for failing to consult with other EU countries. After the border controls already in place with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland, Germany has now reintroduced border controls with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.
The creation of a new online platform, called StatRhena, was announced by the Upper Rhine Interreg program following its monitoring committee meeting on July 9th, 2024.
On August 27th, 2024, Franck Leroy, President of the Grand Est Region, and Winfried Hermann, Baden-Württemberg's Minister of Transport, unveiled the first France-Germany Régiolis cross-border train (TFA).
On June 19th, the MOT was invited to speak at the Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurodistrict Council, chaired by Jeanne Barseghian, Mayor of Strasbourg.
On July 21st, 2023, France and Germany signed an agreement on the development of cross-border apprenticeships. This "major bilateral cooperation project" involves establishing a secure legal framework to enable apprentices from both countries to complete the practical or theoretical part of their training in the neighboring country.
For over a year, the MOT has been conducting an experiment on “cross-border living areas”, supported by seventeen partners in five pilot sites. You can now consult the final report and download our infographic of the study's key takeaways. Don't forget to register for our webinar on June 5th!
On April 16th, 2024, a session of the CCT was held in Strasbourg (Hôtel préfectoral), chaired by Florian Hassler, State Secretary for Political Coordination and Europe of Baden-Württemberg, and Josiane Chevalier, Prefect of the Grand Est region. To mark the 5th anniversary of the Treaty of Aachen, the French Ambassador to Germany, François Delattre, attended the proceedings.
On April 11th, 2024, in Strasbourg, a seminar on cross-border governance was organized by the University of Strasbourg and the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence. A round-table discussion on the three bilateral treaties (Aachen, Quirinal, Barcelona), attended by the ambassadors in charge of borders in France, Italy and Spain and the German Consul General in Strasbourg, was co-hosted by the Euro-institut and the MOT.
A first-of-its-kind partnership in Europe, "3Land" imagines the shared future of a cross-border district on the Dreiländereck, on the French-German-Swiss border. Discover our new project sheet!
"The mayor of Strasbourg, Jeanne Barseghian, is asking the government to allow her to experiment with legalising cannabis in her area. "This is a pragmatic request, since the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle [...] allows cross-border territories to carry out experiments of this type", she says. [...] This request comes at a time when the liberalisation of cannabis consumption in Germany has existed, subject to conditions, since April 1st."
After its first edition in 2023, the "Assises rhénanes de l'eau" is a cross-border event led by the Collectivité européenne d'Alsace (CEA). It was held from the 18th to 23rd of March 2024.
Law 2016-41 of 26 January 2016 on the modernisation of France's healthcare system introduced a new "Regional Health Project" (PRS), maintained in principle, with three new components: a 10-year Strategic Orientation Framework (COS), a single 5-year Regional Health Scheme (SRS) and a Regional Programme on Access to Prevention and Care for the Most Deprived (PRAPS).
