As part of the partnership between the MOT and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, represented by its Department of Spatial Planning, the MOT led a Franco-German-Luxembourgian cross-border workshop on January 31st 2024 at the Maison de la Nature du Pays de Sierck (Moselle).
The Corsican Territorial Authority (Collectivité de Corse) and the Autonomous Region of Sardinia have launched a fundamental process of cooperation to ensure joint management of environmental issues in the Bucchi di Bunifaziu area.
Do you live near the franco-german border? Do you deal with public services on both sides of the border? Share your experience with us!
From the English Channel to the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, cooperation in sea basins was at the heart of discussions at the conference on Regional Cooperation in Maritime Areas (ReCMA), organised in September by the University of Lille, the TVES laboratory and the MOT. To report on this work, the MOT is publishing a "Focus" on this theme at the heart of European integration.
A new initiative in the cross-border legal field, the "Justice without borders" pilot project acts as a Franco-German access point to law in Kehl.
The European research project "Governance mechanisms for cross-border functional areas" (CROSSGOV) aims to develop the knowledge base and prepare the ground for further research under the respective Thematic Action Plans (TAP), providing a common approach at European level. This will provide a departure point for activities to help policymakers at all relevant levels in harnessing the potential of functional approach in planning and governance.
To underline the needs of the border regions and their citizens, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) launched the European Cross-Border Platform, the successor of the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) Platform. The MOT is fully involved in this process, and sits on the Steering Committee alongside AEBR and CESCI.
MEPs have reiterated their readiness to start interinstitutional negotiations with the EU governments on new Commission proposal inspired by the Parliament´s resolution from September 2023 on new mechanism removing legal and administrative cross-border obstacles and fostering cooperation.They would like to reach an agreement on the proposal before the EU elections in June 2024.
On January 22nd, 2019, France and Germany signed the Franco-German cooperation and integration treaty of Aachen.
The European Committee of the Regions invites the European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation to submit their applications for the 2024 edition of the "Building Europe across borders" – Award for EGTCs.
Mobility, public services, health, housing... how can we respond to the cross-border phenomenon between France and Luxembourg? The mayor of Thionville, chairman of the Pôle métropolitain frontalier (PMF), explains what solidarity measures need to be put in place in his area, where 70% of the 120,000 French cross-border workers in Luxembourg are concentrated. READ MORE
On January 25th, 2024, the European Commission announced that it had granted €594 million to eight cross-border energy infrastructure projects. Of these, three are in France, and two are on the Franco-Belgian border.
Nine territorial meetings were organised by the MOT, with the invaluable help of its partners, between October 2023 and January 2024: Ardennes-Meuse, Jura Arc, Grande Région, France-Italy-Monaco, Rhin supérieur, Hauts-de-France, Pyrénées Occidentales, Pyrénées Centre-Est, Greater Geneva.
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)
On both sides of the Pyrenees, the border territories have a long history of cooperation and are involved in a multitude of cross-border projects in all fields, testifying to the vitality of exchanges across the border.
The new allowance designed to protect the purchasing power of civil servants in the Franco-Swiss cross-border area, announced on September 28th, 2023 by Stanislas Guerini, the French Minister for Transformation and the Civil Service, was extended on December 12th to 133 municipalities, instead of the 61 initially announced.
On December 12th, 2023, the Commission adopted its amended proposal for a regulation, formerly known as "ECBM", renamed "FCBS" ("Facilitating Cross-Border Solutions"). Its aim: to relaunch the creation of this European tool to "facilitate the use of cross-border solutions" by "helping Member States to remove obstacles that affect the daily lives of citizens living in cross-border regions of Europe".
A new financial instrument, with a budget of €14.8 million, has been presented by the Nouvelle-Aquitaine-Euskadi-Navarra Euroregion. It will support projects in three key areas: multilingualism, employment and mobility.
On 18 January in Girona, over 200 participants attended the presentation of the functional area of the Espace Catalan Transfrontalier (EsCaT), which brings together the province of Girona and the department of Pyrénées-Orientales to form one of the five functional areas of the POCTEFA 2021-2027 programme.
A bi-national cooperation programme between Haïti and the Dominican Republic aims to strengthen relations between national and local authorities and to promote a border development plan.
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.
