France’s presidency of the EU: what place for cross-border territories?

From 1 January until 30 June 2022, France holds the presidency of the European Union Council, for the 13th time. At a press conference on 9 December, President Emmanuel Macron set out the presidency’s three main themes: "recovery", "power" and "belonging". On this last point, he emphasised that the feeling of belonging to the European region had "declined" in France, as in other EU countries.

Cross-border regions in the Commission’s proposed reform of the Schengen Area: a major step forward

On 14 December 2021, the European Commission presented to the European Parliament its proposals for new rules to strengthen the governance of the Schengen Area. The draft regulation, which sets forth a "Union Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders", specifically takes account of "cross-border regions".

Launch of a working group on the ecological transition

DG REGIO reveals the first results of its study on cross-border public transport services

Lack of accessibility by public transport remains a major obstacle to opening up isolated European border regions. It is on the basis of this observation that the European Commission launched in 2020 a comprehensive study to identify all existing services on European borders.

Bringing together cross-border territories in preparation for 2022!

This autumn, and for the second consecutive year, the MOT organised nine “territorial meetings”, so as to keep in close contact with the members of its network, and involve them in preparing its annual programme. Held successively in Besançon, Strasbourg, Lille, Annemasse, Charleville-Mézières, Nice, Urrugne, Perpignan and Metz, both virtually and in person, the meetings brought together close to 200 participants in total.

European Territorial Cooperation: a MOOC is being designed