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Cross-border
economic
development
13
Preamble
An initial investment is needed to get to know one’s neighbours and
their mode of functioning before
working with them, on their soil or
for them
– three of the main types of relationship between economic
players that the border can give rise to.
Beyond that, public-sector players can take action in two (potentially
complementary) ways:
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First, they can decide to support their businesses or nationals on
the other side of the border, and encourage them to access the
neighbouring market (commercial opportunities, labour market,
etc.). In this case, it is the market that is the engine for cross-
border integration. Here, the public action is more “border region”
than cross-border in nature.
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Second, they can put a system of cross-border governance in
place, regarding the cross-border territory as a whole, where
in particular joint economic action can be encouraged for the
benefit of both sides. This requires the ability to know the territory
(difficulties linked to the absence of appropriate statistics in
cross-border settings) and also to jointly decide on actions to
implement. Here, cross-border integration is not only economic
but also political in nature. This type of set-up is not common,
but we can see the beginnings of it in territories such as the
Euregio Meuse-Rhine.
Cross-border cooperation sometimes comes up against differing
conceptions of its nature, between the view that economic development
should be left solely to market forces and one in which development
is also fostered by public intervention. In France, the public-sector
players – the territorial authorities, national government and chambers
of commerce and industry – are very active in territorial planning and
economic development (vocational training, support for business creation,
development aimed at international markets, etc.). In neighbouring
countries, public intervention is sometimes less extensive in the area of
economic development (e.g. Switzerland), where however it focuses on
creating favourable framework conditions (infrastructure, taxes). Often,
less public intervention is also observed when a territory’s economy
is flourishing.
Structure of the document
This introduction to economic development in cross-border
territories starts by presenting nine portraits of different territories,
mainly based on interviews conducted by the Mission Opérationnelle
Transfrontalière during the course of this project and that briefly
set out the cross-border economic relationships, the framework
conditions, the labour market and the players involved in economic
development.
The second section comprises a cross-cutting analysis of the
different aspects of cross-border economic development, which
draws general conclusions from the comparison of the territories
studied; in particular, it discusses public action in the French context
at a time when it is the subject of far-reaching reforms affecting the
areas of economic development and employment.
In order to illustrate cross-border economic realities in greater detail,
ten good practices factsheets are appended to this introduction.
They present exemplary or innovative projects and partnership
initiatives that may serve as inspiration for other cross-border
territories.