Border: France-Switzerland
Overview
Mobility and employment of border workers
Flow imbalance
Switzerland is the leading host country for border workers resident in France: it accounts for nearly 45% of the outgoing flows from France with 155 800 persons . This number increased by 50% between 1999 and 2007. In June 2008, 49 000 cross-border workers in the canton of Geneva were resident in Haute-Savoie and 12 000 in the Ain department. A total of nearly 80 000 workers from France and from the neighbouring canton of Vaud travel to the canton of Geneva every day. This number has been increasing continuously since 2000, a much higher rate of growth for Geneva than for Switzerland as a whole.
There are less concentrated movements across the Jura range to the bordering Swiss cantons. The majority of these work flows from Jura to Switzerland concern watchmaking, the small towns of the French Jura having a qualified labour force. They are very small in other areas, including agriculture.
The flows of the few Swiss residents working in France are concentrated mainly in the Upper Rhine.
The French-Genevan financial compensation system
In response to the issues arising from this imbalance of flows in the territory, the local institutions cooperated from a very early stage and the French-Genevan financial compensation system was set up in 1973. It takes the form of a yearly grant from the Republic and canton of Geneva to the Ain and Haute-Savoie departments. This system was introduced for reasons of territorial equity, in response to the large number of residents of the French departments who work across the border; they pay taxes on their revenue at the source in Geneva, but use the public infrastructure of the French municipalities where they live. The grant from the canton of Geneva, transferred by the French State to the border departments, amounted to 46 million euros in 2012. The Haute-Savoie department receives 76% of the compensation paid by the Canton and the Republic of Geneva and the Ain department 24%. From January 2013 the compensation is no longer limited in this department to municipalities with a high proportion of cross-border workers in the Pays de Gex or Bellegardien, but is also received by other municipalities further way from the border, such as Echallon (36 border workers), Anglefort (33 border workers) or Poizat (19 border workers).
The compensation transferred to the department is used to fund infrastructure projects, giving priority to projects related to housing or transport. For example, two new infrastructure projects are being implemented thanks to these funds: the extension of the Geneva tramway line from Geneva to CERN and to Saint-Genis-Pouilly, and the bus rapid transit route linking Gex and Ferney-Voltaire on the border.
Employment strategies
Supplementing the compensation system, active employment strategies have been implemented since the 1960s.
The Groupement transfrontalier européen (GTE) was established in 1963 to represent border workers and defend their interests on either side of the border. A non-profit association, it works towards better integration of border workers either side of the border through representation actions and provision of a number of services for them (assistance with legal, tax, social, etc., matters).
The GTE is linked with the Maisons transfrontalières, one-stop cross-border information offices at locations along the French-Swiss border. They work with 19 French and Swiss partners providing information and advice at the offices.
The purpose of another example, the Modularisation of cross-border training provision project, managed by the Maison de l’économie et du développement d’Annemasse and the Office pour l’orientation, la formation professionnelle et continue of the canton of Geneva, is the design and follow-up of a cross-border method of modularisation of vocational training programmes. The project team has worked on designing tools for analysing, comparing and designing a range of training programmes linking the training skills and contents available in the two countries.
Joint governance for cross-border public transport
The density of the flows and the attractiveness of the canton of Geneva have generated road congestion, particularly within the France-Vaud-Geneva conurbation. This situation has led the local partners to reinforce and extend the public transport system in a cross-border cooperation approach. Operated with French partners, several routes connect the border municipalities to the Geneva area. To improve their service and their fare system , the local partners have formed a Local Cross-border Cooperation Grouping (LCCG), establishing in the process, and for the first time, joint governance of cross-border public transport. Its flagship action, the Ceva mobility project, aims to introduce a cross-border regional express railway line to optimise public transport provision for handling the increase in the number of commuter movements within the Greater Geneva area. With a length of 16 km, it is scheduled to connect Cornavin to Annemasse through a tunnel by 2018. It will also be connected to a 230 km railway network giving Evian, Annecy and Saint-Gervais through services to Geneva, Nyon and even Lausanne.
INSEE 2007 figures updated by the MOT in 2010
Since 2004, the Uniresco joint fare system allows use of the French and Genevan public transport networks with a single ticket, within the France-Vaud-Geneva conurbation.
