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.
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.
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.
On September 1st, the Savoy Department and the Aosta Valley organized the first Alpine Festival at the Little St Bernard Pass.
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!
A conference entitled “The cross-border living area: a laboratory for European integration between Italy and France” was held in Rome on April 18th, 2024. It brought together researchers, elected representatives and technicians from French and Italian border territories, both land and sea, as well as national administrations. The day of reflection was jointly organized by CERDACFF (DITER), Université Nice Côte d'Azur, and CNR/ ISSIRFA.
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.
The report entitled "Les nouveaux enjeux de développement des territoires de montagne : Pour une montagne vivante en 2030" ("New development challenges for mountain regions: For a living mountain in 2030") by Joël Giraud, Member of Parliament for the Hautes-Alpes, has just been published.
On April 11th and 12th, 2024, the partners of Observ'Alp, a project financed by the Interreg ALCOTRA program, met in Marseille to continue their work on cross-border observation (France-Italy-Monaco) and take part in the second meeting of the Steering Committee (COPIL) and the Collective Intelligence Committee (CIC).
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).
A "Southern Alps Cross-border Alliance" was launched on February 8th 2024 in Imperia in the presence of Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Nice, President of the Métropole Nice Côte d'Azur and Deputy President of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region, and Claudio Scajola, Mayor of Imperia and President of the Province of Imperia.
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.
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 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)
Following the launch of the Franco-Italian Border Cooperation Committee, and more recently of the "Observ'Alp" project, which brings together numerous partners between France, Italy and Monaco, Christian Estrosi answers our questions on the major cross-border challenges facing the Metropolis with its border neighbors.
On December 4th and 5th, 2023, the partners of Observ'Alp, a project selected as part of the Interreg ALCOTRA program, met in Nice to discuss their work which will unfold over the next two years.
The "PITER ALPIMED" is a cross-border cooperation strategy funded under the Interreg Alcotra program that ran between 2018 and 2022 in the mountain area between the provinces of Cuneo, Imperia and the Alpes-Maritimes department.
The cooperation dynamic launched at the beginning of the year by the French Riviera Conurbation Community (Communauté d'Agglomération de la Riviera Française - CARF) and the City of Sanremo is continuing today, with the aim of setting up an EGTC by the end of 2024.
Promoting the history of the salt roads has been a theme of interest to many local players and elected representatives in the cross-border area for many years.
Just a few hours before the first meeting of the Quirinal Cross-Border Cooperation Committee (CCF), the Piedmont Region hosted the launch of the "ALCOTraité" Interreg project, which brings together the MOT and the five regions of the Franco-Italian "Alpine" cooperation area.
On October 31st, 2023, the Piedmontese capital hosted the inaugural meeting of the new Cross-Border Cooperation Committee (CCF), a result of the Quirinal Treaty signed two years ago between France and Italy.
At the "Mediterranean of the Future" event held in Marseille on September 22 th, 2023, Renaud Muselier, President of the South Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region, announced plans for a Mediterranean-wide macro-region.
On June 19th and 20th, 2023, the first symposium on Italo-French cross-border cooperation was held in Menton, organised by researchers from the CNR-ISSIRFA and the CERDAFF-DITER. It brought together a large number of academics, technicians, and politicians to discuss the challenges of Italo-French cross-border cooperation.
A meeting between Christian Estrosi, mayor of Nice and president of the Nice Côte d'Azur Metropolitan Area, and Claudio Scajola, mayor of Imperia and president of the Province of Imperia, on the 19th of May in Nice, provided an opportunity to present a cross-border coastal development programme between the Nice Côte d'Azur Metropolitan Area and the Province of Imperia, and another programme focusing on the mountains between the Vésubie and Tinée valleys and the neighbouring valleys of the Provinces of Imperia and Cuneo.
