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.
Close to 300 people gathered in Strasbourg for a major seminar on the cross-border relations of the new “Grand Est” region of France.
With the recent approval by both the German Länder and the federal level of its "Guiding Principles", Germany is emphasising cross-border cooperation in its territorial development policy.
New "Guiding Principles" for Germany's territorial development were adopted in March 2016, which are in line with the idea that "Germany is not an island".
Several spatial planning pilot projects (MORO), such as the one that led to the setting-up of the IMeG,* incorporating border region and cross-border considerations have been launched in Germany.
Published by Correspondances Lorraines. Author: Pascale Braun. October 2016. Retail price: €20. Title in English: "The Greater East Region: Europe among Neighbours"
This summer, the MOT completely updated its online legal resources relating to cross-border cooperation law.
Thanks to the Kubic project, which was led by the Saarmoselle Eurodistrict and funded by the Interreg IVA programme, five local French and German television stations pooled their know-how and technical resources to produce a weekly cross-border music programme.
The SaarMoselle Eurodistrict has just adopted an action programme for the next five years.
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.
Intended to form an integrated urban entity within the framework of the "Two Banks" initiative structured around a tramline, which is scheduled to start running in 2017, the cities of Strasbourg and Kehl constitute an interesting barometer for the consequences of the reintroduction of controls along the French-German border.
The French-German association has launched two new websites aimed at providing consumers with better information.
The second edition of “Startup Show 42”, a cross-border digital innovation fair, was held on 6 April in Metz on the fringes of the Franco-German Council of Ministers. Over forty startups from the Lorraine Corridor (Epinal, Nancy, Metz, Thionville) and the QuattroPole city network (Luxembourg, Metz, Saarbrücken, Trier) were there to present their know-how and latest innovations.
Since 2008, the IFSI (Nursing training institute) of the Centre Hospitalier de Sarreguemines in France and Völklingen Hospital in Germany have built a partnership in the field of nursing education, consisting of the development of interculturality and promotion of bilingualism in initial and ongoing training.
Cross-border cooperation was on the agenda for the 18th Franco-German Council of Ministers presided by François Hollande and Angela Merkel on 7 April 2016 in Metz.
The President of the Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine Region, Philippe Richert, and his first Vice-President, Patrick Weiten, have written to the French President of the Republic. They are asking for 'a strong signal' to be sent at the French-German council of ministers meeting on 7 April in Metz.
The publication "Systèmes Territoriaux Régionaux" ("Regional Territorial Systems") that was brought out in January 2016 by the French Federation of Public Urban Planning Agencies (the FNAU) provides an analysis of territorial issues and interrelationships in France, through the lens of legislative developments and the issues at stake in public policy. A section written by the MOT is devoted to the cross-border dimension.
The Upper Rhine Trinational Metropolitan Region is renewing its scheme to finance cross-border projects in the area of research and innovation entitled the "Science Offensive".
As set out on 22 January 2016 by Patrick Weiten, president of the Moselle Conseil Départemental and first vice-president of the Alsace Champagne-Ardenne Lorraine Region responsible for territorial and cross-border cooperation, the Trilingua scheme aimed at promoting the learning of German in Moselle is being replaced by two new experiments in this regard.
The first European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) to be set up by an alliance of universities is located in the Upper Rhine area.
Since 1 January 2016, pensioners in French and German border regions who previously worked in the other country no longer run the risk of being taxed twice.
The "Grex" platform was set up on 4 January 2016 in order to provide operational support to any sole trader or SME wishing to develop an economic partnership in the Greater Region.
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?.
The Joint Secretariat of the Upper Rhine Conference and the journalist Reinhard Reck have produced a booklet to mark the 40th anniversary of the French-German-Swiss intergovernmental commission. The booklet presents the evolution, diversity and dynamism of cross-border cooperation in the Upper Rhine since the Bonn Agreement signed in 1975.
The seminar organised by the Council of Europe was an opportunity to examine cross-border cooperation activity organised around the work of the Basel Trinational Eurodistrict (ETB), the international architecture exhibition IBA Basel 2020 and the Basel Agglomeration programme.
