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.
The health situation threw up a major challenge – that of providing a suitable format for citizens’ participation in the middle of a pandemic. In collaboration with the Euro-Institut and the MOT, the Basel Trinational Eurodistrict (ETB) developed a concept organised around a questionnaire and several virtual events. The aim was both to ensure broad participation from the population and to facilitate real exchanges between citizens from the three countries.
The Basel trinational conurbation is a genuinely shared living area that is strongly interconnected. In designing our Strategy 2030, it seemed extremely important to us to set our goals in accordance with what matters to the region’s population.
In collaboration with the MOT and the Euro-Institut, the Basel Trinational Eurodistrict is currently working on its Strategy 2030, which will set out its role, its organisation and its themes for the coming years. One of its goals is to involve citizens more, as cross-border cooperation is aimed at one thing above all: making daily life and coexistence the border region easier and more enriching for its inhabitants.
GeoRhena, the Upper Rhine geographic information system, has developed a simplified dynamic mapping tool that enables people to view and search for regularly updated data on developments in the Covid-19 epidemic in the Franco-German-Swiss trinational region.
The 2030 strategy for the Upper Rhine Trinational Metropolitan Region was signed in Basel on 22 November. “We want to be a model region for Europe and to make visible and tangible the benefits that Europe provides day by day. To do this, we will continue to develop excellence in the economic and scientific field, to strengthen structures of cross-border cooperation and to develop new potential,” the political representatives affirmed on this occasion.
On 2 September, the leaders of nine Swiss border regions sent a letter to the President of the European Commission in which they expressed their concerns about the state of the relationship between the European Union and Switzerland. They fear that a rejection in a referendum of the framework agreement would undermine the basis of the bilateral treaties – with adverse economic consequences for the border regions.
Yann Dubois, Editions Alphil-Presses universitaires suisses, Collection "Espaces, mobilités et sociétés" No. 9, 613 pp, 2019 - in French.
Around 50 young workers from the border region between Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein got together in June 2018 for the first transnational symposium of young workers.
The observation of cross-border territories, which is now recognised as a priority by European countries, is moving towards overall coordination. The MORO project launched in Germany has accelerated this progress.
To mark its 20th anniversary, the MOT produced a map of European cross-border territories. Now, on the occasion of its 21st General Assembly, it is publishing – and has had printed in the form of a large poster – a map showing the cross-border territories along France's borders.
On 9-10 November 2017, the MOT took part in the final conference of a project on the observation of cross-border territories along Germany's borders.
The annual meeting of the network on 15 March in Belval gave the MOT's new members the opportunity to speak, and these new members were presented to all of the participants.
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.
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".
The first European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) to be set up by an alliance of universities is located in the Upper Rhine area.
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.
Today the Commission officially launched the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP), the fourth EU macro-regional strategy. More than70 million citizens will reap the benefits of a closer cooperation between regions and countries in terms of research and innovation, SME support, mobility, tourism, environmental protection and energy resources management.
This study focuses on various effects of international borders on local public transport: How does it impact demand, service offer as well as framework conditions?
