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.
At the invitation of its partner, the French Network of Urban Planning Agencies (FNAU), the MOT led a one-day workshop as part of the 45th national meeting of urban planning agencies, which took place in Saint-Omer from the 9th to 11th of October 2024. Organised by an MOT network member, the Pays de Saint-Omer urban planning, development and heritage agency (AUD), the theme of the event was ‘public spaces’.
More than a hundred stakeholders from all over France gathered in Dunkirk and on the Franco-Belgian border on September 17th and 18th, 2024, for the MOT's general assembly, at the invitation of its members: the Dunkirk Urban Community (Communauté urbaine de Dunkerque), the Nord Department and the Flanders-Dunkirk Urban Planning Agency. The event was an opportunity to highlight the richness and uniqueness of cross-border cooperation on the Franco-Flemish coast, while reaffirming the importance of cooperation in the face of the common challenges faced by border territories!
Following the floods in inland Flanders in November 2023 and January 2024, which necessitated the activation of the "MAGETEAUX" plan*, the President of the French Republic entrusted François Decoster, Mayor of Saint-Omer, with a mission to analyze our neighbors' flood prevention and management practices and policies.
To mark its fifteenth anniversary, the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis has interviewed all its stakeholders to retrace the history of the EGTC and outline its future horizons: "elected representatives, partners, technicians, members of civil society... they have all responded to this invitation to look back at the history of the Eurometropolis". The first three episodes are available on the Eurometropolis’s YouTube channel.
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!
Discover our project sheets published to coincide with the MOT General Assembly in Dunkirk on June 27th and 28th!
The European elections in June 2024 place cross-border territories and the challenges of “everyday Europe” at the heart of the debate. To mark the occasion, the MOT has launched a dialogue with border citizens, focusing on local, cross-border and European issues. And the West-Vlaanderen - Flanders-Dunkerque-Côte d'Opale EGTC has responded by organizing a citizens' dialogue on its territory:
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).
On March 12th, the MOT visited the sub-prefecture of Vervins, in the Aisne department, for a meeting on the cross-border issues facing the "Pact for the Sambre-Avesnois-Thiérache territory", attended by the SGAR, the Hauts-de-France region, the sub-prefectures of Avesnes-sur-Helpe and Vervins, the Aisne and Nord departments and the territory's EPCIs (public establishments of intercommunal cooperation).
On January 25th, 2024, the European Commission announced that it had granted €594 million to eight cross-border energy infrastructure projects. Of these, three are in France, and two are on the Franco-Belgian border.
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)
The 2023-2027 State-Region Plan Contract (CPER) for the Grand Est region provides for more than €2.1 billion in funding for its mobility component.
The French and Belgian members of the "Ardennes Cross-Border Strategy" (Stratégie de l'Ardenne Transfrontalière) met on November 9th, 2023 for a strategic committee meeting at the Convention Center in Vieilles-Forges (Ardennes).
To highlight concrete cross-border initiatives, the MOT publishes a new project sheet every month. Discover the project sheet for November, following the meeting of the network's "Cross-border ecological transition" working group.
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.
This workshop, organized by the PAMINA Eurodistrict with the participation of the MOT, the Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino Euroregion and the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis, was held on October 11th as part of the European Week of Regions and Cities.
On July 6th, the MOT led the final steering committee of the study conducted with its member, the Maubeuge Val de Sambre conurbation, on a strategy for the cross-border Sambre Avesnois.
The Platform on the perception of borders, the final product of the FRONTEM project, as well as the toolkit on the five borders studied, have been put online.
The University of the Greater Region (UniGR) and the University of Luxembourg organised the closing event of the Erasmus+ "EurIdentity Certificate" project and the annual conference on higher education and research in the Greater Region on 27 June 2023 on the Belval campus in Esch-sur-Alzette.
This study, which has just been published by the Institut Montaigne, establishes a detailed diagnosis of the employment situation in the territory of the European Metropolis of Lille, and aims to identify the various levers that would allow action to be taken to better match the Lille labor market.
To produce a map based on the feelings of citizens, the Forum of the Eurometropolis Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai - who constitutes its citizen assembly - launched this project a year ago to capture the "emotional landscape of the cross-border living area".
Financed within the framework of the Interreg Grande Région program, the RECOTTE [RECOnversion of Territories through Ecological Transition] project focused on the reconversion of territories through ecological transition on a local cross-border scale.
On May 2nd, 2023, the 4th meeting of the "Cross-border ecological transition" working group of the MOT network, which brought together about thirty participants around the question: "how to better involve citizens in the ecological transition of cross-border territories?", took place.
