Following publication of the final report and blueprints for each pilot site in the ‘Building more resilient cross-border regions’ project run by the OECD and DG REGIO, the Cerdagne cross-border hospital - one of the pilot sites - gives us its views on the work carried out, its contributions and the specific needs of the area.
On 12 February 2025, the third edition of the Cross-border Encounters organised by the Pays Basque Conurbation Community brought together experts and political decision-makers from all over the Basque Country and Europe, to make the voice of cross-border territories heard in the construction of the European Union.
In collaboration with the European Commission, the OECD’s new report shows that well-designed and well-resourced cross-border governance bodies can help unlock the development potential of border regions.
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.
As the Franco-Spanish hospital celebrates its 10th anniversary, an article of France 3 Régions reports that the Spanish tax authorities are demanding that the hospital's 32 employees pay taxes in Spain, even though they are already subject to taxation in France.
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.
On Monday, October 7th, Jean-René Etchegaray, President of the Basque Country Community (CAPB), and Imanol Pradales, the new President of the Basque Autonomous Community, renewed the memorandum linking the two institutions from October 7th 2019.
On September 26th, the French Ministry of Health hosted the closing of the exhibition commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Cerdagne Hospital EGTC - the first cross-border hospital created in Europe.
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.
A new feature of the Interreg POCTEFA 2021-2027 program, the Functional Areas allow us to work on smaller perimeters.
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.
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).
Extreme heat, prolonged droughts, unseasonable cold spells, storms and hurricanes... climate change knows no borders.
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.
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.
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.
On October 17th, 2023, the MOT network's "Cross-border ecological transition" working group held its 5th meeting. This was an opportunity to investigate issues linked to cross-border management of water resources in the context of climate change.
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.
"At a time when much work is being done on the concept of cross-border living areas, the department of Pyrénées-Orientales, the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Diputació de Girona have agreed on the definition of a space for exchange and collaboration, shaped by a shared history, culture and language.
As the new "functional area" of the Spain-France-Andorra Interreg programme (POCTEFA 2021-2027), the Catalan Cross-Border Area will soon be funding cooperation projects worth over €4 million.
With the joint hosting of the cross-border start of the Tour de France in 2023 and the second edition of the cross-border summer universities, there is a great deal going on in the French-Spanish Basque Country. At a meeting in July, elected representatives from both sides of the border emphasised their desire to take cooperation further.
On May 17th, 2023, a meeting between the president of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga, and Père Aragones, president of Catalonia, in Barcelona, agreed on the creation of a cross-border working group, the aim of which will be to improve water management and help populations cope with drought.
