On the border between France, Germany and Luxembourg, the cross-border territory hosting the MOT’s general assembly on June 27th and 28th, 2023, in Metz is a hub for cross-border news, projects and issues. Joint interview with Patrick Weiten, president of the department of Moselle and former member of Parliament, and François Grosdidier, president of Metz Eurometropolis and mayor of Metz.
Initiated in December 2019, the TRISAN project "Trinational action plan for cross-border healthcare in the Upper Rhine", led by the Euro-Institute, came to an end on May 31st, 2023.
The conference to launch the new cross-border legal access point, located at the heart of the Strasbourg-Kehl conurbation, was held on May 10th, 2023 at the Strasbourg judicial court. Its chairman, Thierry Ghera, gives us his view on this new service, the first of its kind in Europe.
The Treaty of Aachen mandated the Franco-German Cross-Border Cooperation Committee (CBC) to analyse the impact of legislation on border regions, with the aim of avoiding "the emergence of new legal difficulties in everyday cross-border life".
At the conference "Border Region Academy: Border regions of Germany with its neighboring countries" organized by the German Federal Office for Spatial Planning on April 20th and 21st in Berlin, in which the MOT participated, several significant studies for cross-border cooperation were presented.
On April 13th, 2023, the second meeting of the MOT-ANCT working group dedicated to observation, co-hosted by the Atlantic and Pyrenees Urban Planning Agency (AUDAP) and the French Riviera Agglomeration Community (CARF), took place.
Following the conference "Cities and Metropolises in France and Germany" on March 14th, this report of the ARL (Academy for Territorial Development in the Leibniz Association) is available in French and in English. It includes a contribution by Jean Peyrony, Franziska Sielker and Thomas Perrin, entitled "Cross-border territorial cooperation between France and Germany: evolution, convergence and perspectives".
The MOT, supported by sixteen partners of its network, initiated a "cross-border living areas experiment" at the end of 2022.
On March 24th, 2023, the Franco-German citizen portal "FRED.info" was put online. Developed in the framework of a partnership between the Land of Baden-Württemberg and the Grand Est Region, the tool is managed by the Franco-German Institute (DFI).
With more than 200,000 border workers, the Grand Est region is a laboratory for European mobility. As a member of the MOT network, "Frontaliers Grand Est" accompanies these numerous border workers on a daily basis. Julien Dauer helps us better understand the challenges they face.
On Friday, March 17th, 2023 the 3rd meeting of the MOT working group "Cross-border ecological transition" was held on the theme of decarbonizing cross-border mobility. The exchanges were organized in two parts.
"By studying the past, history allows the present to build bridges to the future", this is the motto under which the Franco-German Citizen Fund has just launched a call for projects entitled "Journey through time".
Following the model of the IBA that has been set up in Basel, a laboratory workshop has been commissioned by the Saarland to study the feasibility of an "Internationale Bau Austellung" (International Architecture and Urban Planning Exhibition) in the Greater Region.
Representatives of the Upper Rhine met on January 19th in Strasbourg. They called for their territory to become "a springboard for the development of European railways".
At the invitation of the Regions of France and the Grand Est Region, a meeting between representatives of the French regions and members of the Conference of Ministers of European Affairs was held in Strasbourg on the 17th and 18th of January 2023.
The SaarMoselle Eurodistrict, which has been a member of the MOT network since 2005, answers our questions about a subject at the heart of local life in the cross-border living area.
125 cross-border projects were officially approved at the plenary session of the Collectivité Européenne d'Alsace (CEA) held on December 8th. The topic of energy took center stage!
On December 14th, 2022, the closing conference of the first Franco-German spatial planning pilot project (MORO) was held in Strasbourg, with Jean Peyrony, director general of the MOT, and other experts sharing their knowledge at several round tables.
The constitutive meeting of the "Cross-border territorial observation" working group (GT/OTT) of the French-German Cross-border Cooperation Committee (CCT) was held in Strasbourg on December 15th under the co-chairmanship of the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) and the National Agency for Territorial Cohesion (ANCT).
On November 23rd, 2022, the Saarland, the Grand Est region, the Moselle department and the Saar-Moselle Eurodistrict signed an alliance designed to join forces to facilitate access to healthcare for the populations in the border regions.
The gradual conversion of a quarry in Saint-Louis, close to the French, Swiss and German borders, offers a promising opportunity for the agglomeration.
Published in paper format in 2020, this major publication, to which the MOT contributed, is finally available online.
Impact analyses, provided for in the Franco-German Treaty of Aachen and carried out when new standards are drawn up, could make it possible to avoid future obstacles to cross-border cooperation and the complexities of everyday life for the inhabitants of border areas.
In the Franco-German region of Strasbourg-Kehl, the municipalities are in the process of implementing a flagship cross-border cooperation project for the extension of urban heating networks. Soon, the waste heat from the local steel mill will supply thousands of households on both sides of the Rhine.
