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.
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.
"For over 20 years, the Pas-de-Calais department has maintained strong, friendly bilateral relations with its neighbor across the Channel, the county of Kent.
On September 14th and 15th, 2023, the Regional Cooperation in Maritime Areas (ReCMA) symposium was held, organized by the Territories, Cities, Environment & Society (TVES) laboratory of the University of Lille and the MOT. The operational and academic approaches of the various speakers provided an overview of cooperation in the maritime basins bordering France.
Published in paper format in 2020, this major publication, to which the MOT contributed, is finally available online.
Climate change doesn’t care about borders and calls for greater solidarity! The Finistère Department and Cornwall County Council have shared values and challenges: regional languages, a Celtic culture, and a strong relationship with the sea and the environment.
Since it came into force on 31 January 2020, the effects of Brexit on the territories oriented towards the Channel are tangible. On both sides, the new procedures for exports are penalising small producers, the fishing and agri-business sectors, as well as the services sector (tourism and hospitality). The economic context linked to the double crisis (Covid and Brexit) is also putting many cross-Channel transport links at risk.
Since 31 January 2021, anyone entering France, including from other European countries, must be in possession of a negative Covid test obtained within the previous 72 hours. However, this obligation does not apply to the inhabitants of cross-border living areas (for journeys lasting less than 24 hours) or to cross-border workers.
The MOT has published an analysis of the consequences for cross-border territories of the health crisis – the result of a call for experiences issued to all of its members. Organised in three main parts, it aims to set out the impacts, difficulties and initiatives linked to the management of the Covid-19 health crisis in cross-border territories.
The MOT has published on its website and on social media a series of maps showing the situation with respect to the easing of lockdown measures along France’s borders.
Six local authorities bordering the Strait of Dover and the North Sea have decided to turn their bilateral relations into a multilateral area for dialogue in order to encourage the emergence of cross-border projects across the territory of the Strait.
Great Britain is considered as part of the European Union until the end of the post-Brexit transition period in December 2020 and even though it had never been part of the Schengen area, facing the closure of this area to third country nationals since 17 March at 12 noon, the border with France remains open.
On 22 November 2019, the Pas-de-Calais Department hosted the closing conference of the PASSAGE project in Arras. The MOT took part in it.
The successful bids for the call for projects “France-United Kingdom: for a strengthened cooperation between our local authorities” launched by the British Embassy in France, with the support of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have been announced.
On 14-15 May, at the invitation of the Pas-de-Calais Department, 24 territorial authorities that border on 11 European straits gathered in Boulogne-sur-Mer. The purpose: to take stock of ten years of working together within the European Straits Initiative.
On the occasion of the European Conference on the Energy Transition, which is taking place in Dunkirk on 22-24 January 2019, the MOT is publishing a new edition of its thematic Guides, on the energy transition and cross-border cooperation.
To mark its 20th anniversary, the MOT produced a map of European cross-border territories. Now, on the occasion of its 21st General Assembly, it is publishing – and has had printed in the form of a large poster – a map showing the cross-border territories along France's borders.
On 13 March 2017, around 50 French and British stakeholders from either side of the Dover Strait met in St Margaret's Bay, in Kent, to discuss an action plan for the low-carbon transition.
After several decades of innovative projects undertaken between neighbouring countries, cross-border territories have become shared living spaces, and places for discovering a “European citizenship” experienced in daily life.
The members of the CNCD (National Commission for Decentralized Cooperation) approved on 23 November 2016 a White Paper entitled “Diplomatie et territoires" (Diplomacy and Territories) proposed by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development.
The Institut National des Études Territoriales (INET) in Strasbourg has put online a platform designed to centralise a large amount of disparate information about French territorial civil servants' possibilities for mobility in Europe and internationally.
On 12 May, a conference was held to launch a new European project entitled "PASSAGE"*, initiated by the Pas-de-Calais Department and Kent County Council within the framework of the European Straits Initiative. Funded by the Interreg Europe programme, it involves eleven partners on five maritime borders** and is aimed at encouraging cross-border low-carbon initiatives.
At a time when the paradigm of open borders conducive to free movement appears to be called into question by the political choices being made, borders remain complex geopolitical phenomena that continue to durably impact territories through either centripetal or centrifugal dynamics depending on the place.
Following the regional elections and the reform which reduced the number of regions in mainland France from 22 to 13, the MOT has published a note (in French) on the new French regions and the territorial reform: what will be the impact on cross-border cooperation?.
