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!
To prepare the future of territorial cooperation, the Commission launched a process of consultation with citizens and stakeholders at the end of 2023. These consultations, which will take place throughout 2024, will be carried out by each Interreg program.
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.
On September 1st, the Savoy Department and the Aosta Valley organized the first Alpine Festival at the Little St Bernard Pass.
"Easy Border" is a simple, user-friendly navigator that guides you to the right European Commission service for your cross-border needs. Whether you need help overcoming an obstacle or are looking for information, Easy Border has you covered. This intuitive tool supports individuals and both public and private organisations across the European Union, as well as Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Iceland.
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).
In a meeting in Nyon on July 2nd, 2024, the Assembly of the Local cross-border cooperation group (GLCT) of Greater Geneva laid the foundations for its “Cross-border territorial vision for 2050”.
Following the European elections, the MOT would like to pay special tribute to the work of MEP Anne Sander, MOT vice-president since 2015, whose mandate has unfortunately not been renewed.
On June 20th, 2024, the regulation "on a Union Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders" - the new "Schengen Code" - was published in the EU's Official Journal.
On June 19th, the MOT was invited to speak at the Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurodistrict Council, chaired by Jeanne Barseghian, Mayor of Strasbourg.
At the "Reinforcing Cross-Border Governance for Development" event held on June 19th and 20th, the European Commission and the OECD presented a new tool designed to strengthen governance in the cross-border regions of the European Union.
The study on "Strengthening the resilience of EU border regions: Mapping risks & crisis management tools and identifying gaps" has just been published by the European Commission (DG REGIO and DG ECHO).
On June 17th, the MOT and the Dunkirk Urban Community co-organized a "Journée Trans-Mer du Nord" (Trans-North Sea Day) to launch a forward-looking reflection process, initially internal to the Dunkirk region, on cooperation with neighboring England.
On June 5th, 2024, a new meeting of the MOT network's "cross-border governance" working group was held, focusing on the results of the "cross-border living areas" experiment. This experiment was conducted for over a year by the MOT with the support of 17 network partners on 5 pilot sites on the French borders, and resulted in a final report available on the MOT website.
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.
On June 11th, 2024, the new national sea and coastal strategy (SNML) for the period 2024-2030 was adopted. The strategy aims to coordinate public policies relating to the sea and coast, and is structured around 18 objectives. The four main priorities are carbon neutrality, biodiversity protection, social equity and the competitiveness of a sustainable blue economy.
Following the floods in inland Flanders in November 2023 and January 2024, which necessitated the activation of the "MAGETEAUX" plan*, the President of the French Republic entrusted François Decoster, Mayor of Saint-Omer, with a mission to analyze our neighbors' flood prevention and management practices and policies.
The POCTEFA program has launched a questionnaire for local residents to identify the border obstacles that affect their daily lives.
The first pilot committee of the SA-URG (Support Sanitaire opérationnel de réponse à l'Urgence transpyrénéenne) project, financed by the European POCTEFA program, was held on June 13th and 14th, 2024 in Bayonne.
