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Cross-border
economic
development
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Territory portraits: economic development on different borders
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The Southern Basque Country Conurbation
(Agglo Sud-Pays
Basque) supports shared knowledge in the cross-border area
and the siting of French and Spanish businesses on its territory in
specially built business areas. The Conurbation also has a policy
of teaching the Basque language, which is considered an asset for
businesses (especially in the hotel and retail sectors) and a factor
of economic integration. Bidosa Activa, the local development
agency of the Bidasoa-Txingudi district, is an important partner
of the Southern Basque Country Conurbation.
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A number of French and Spanish chambers of commerce
and industry
(CCIs) have established partnerships and carry
out cross-border actions. However, it is important to recognise
the major differences between the chambers of commerce on
either side of the border, especially since the reform introduced in
Spain two years ago. Thus, while in France CCIs have remained
public bodies, in Spain, they have private status and membership
is optional, which has had an impact on their budgets and the
services they offer. The most developed cross-border partnership
is between the Bayonne Pays Basque CCI and the Camara de
Comercio in Guipuzkoa. In 2010, they created Bihartean
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, an EEIG,
with the objective of supporting businesses in their cross-border
projects and developing cross-border economic projects. At the
other end of the border, the Perpignan and Pyrénées-Orientales
CCI has partnerships with the Catalonian and Andorran chambers
of commerce.
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For more information, see the Project Factsheet.
It should be noted that the Euroregions work with the consular chambers,
on the one hand Aquitaine-Euskadi with Bihartean, and on the other,
the Pyrenees-Mediterranean Euroregion with several chambers of
commerce (notably on inter-clustering). The chambers of commerce
are also linked to local authorities; for example, on the French side, they
manage the business incubators built by the conurbations.
Some CMAs (chambres de métiers et de l’artisanat – chambers of trades
and crafts) are also active at the cross-border level, despite the fact that
they have no equivalent in Spain. For example, the Pyrénées-Atlantiques
CMA has partnerships with Ikaslan Guipuzkoa (the association of public
training centres) and since 2008 has worked particularly on developing
joint training programmes.
Finally, it should be noted that the coordination of economic activities at
the Euroregional level and those at the local level is yet to be developed.
The western part of the border is marked by a multiplicity of cooperative
structures at different levels or covering different, overlapping areas,
with greater clarity needed regarding their respective roles.
The 2007-2013 POCTEFA programme for cross-border cooperation has
co-financed numerous projects in the fields of economic development
and professional training.
Some local authorities have chosen to support the cross-border
dimension of economic development.