As part of the Franco-Italian friendship reaffirmed by the Quirinal Treaty, the autonomous region of Aosta Valley and the Haute-Savoie department have formalised their cooperation by signing a strengthened partnership agreement on the 23rd and 24th of January 2025.
On February 8th, 2025, Nova Gorica and Gorizia will launch their European Capital of Culture (ECoC) 2025 journey, marking a historic first for a cross-border ECoC.
On December 5th, 2024, the meeting of the ‘Territory’ commission of the CNIS was held, in which the MOT took part. The aim was to discuss the observation of border territories and how to carry out cross-border comparisons: how can existing flows and exchanges between two border territories be monitored? How can the border phenomenon be quantified and its consequences for territories assessed?
On December 20th, 2024, after more than ten years of negotiations, the European Union and Switzerland concluded a set of agreements aimed at strengthening their bilateral relations. These agreements, which have yet to be approved by the Swiss parliament, will have repercussions for Franco-Swiss cross-border cooperation and freedom of movement. Relations between the EU and Switzerland are governed by more than 120 bilateral agreements.
On November 25th, 2024, in Erquelinnes, Belgium, the MOT led a workshop on cross-border mobility as part of the ‘Sambre Avesnois Sud Hainaut’ cooperation strategy. Following a presentation by the MOT of a territorial analysis of cross-border mobility, some thirty elected representatives and technicians from both sides of the border discussed the challenges of improving rail and road links to meet the daily needs of the French-Belgian population.
Since March 2023, the Commission for the planning, development and protection of the Jura mountains (Massif du Jura) and the MOT have been working on a cross-border territorial study of the Franco-Swiss massif.
The end of 2024 marked the start of a new mission for the MOT: supported by the Piedmont Region as lead partner, the A-MONT initiative (cross-border mountain framework agreement) which aims to strengthen the dynamics of territorial cooperation between France and Italy in the Northern Alps.
On December 18th, 2024, around forty participants gathered for a webinar organised by the MOT and the ANCT, in partnership with Small towns of tomorrow (Petites villes de demain), Future Villages (Villages d’Avenir) and Mountain Futures (Avenir Montagnes) programmes.
In collaboration with the European Commission, the OECD’s new report shows that well-designed and well-resourced cross-border governance bodies can help unlock the development potential of border regions.
In France, resigning minister Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet announced on December 3rd, 2024 that the controversial reform of border worker unemployment would be abandoned. This measure, which would have reduced benefits for border workers, was met with strong opposition, particularly in eastern France.
Brigitte Klinkert, MP for Haut-Rhin, has been appointed by the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee as rapporteur for a flash mission dedicated to "cross-border issues for metropolitan French citizens".
On December 16th, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on the new BRIDGEforEU instrument aimed at removing administrative and legal obstacles in border regions, representing a major step forward for Europe's border territories!
At the 163rd plenary session of the European Committee of the Regions, several opinions on the future of territorial cooperation, and more specifically on cross-border cooperation, were adopted. In particular, they propose doubling its funding!
In 2021, border workers travel an average of 34 km to get to work, compared with 14 km for non-border workers living in the same areas. The majority go by car. 18% of them have journeys of 50 km or more, and there are significantly more of these long journeys than in 2010.
The EU has launched the ACROSS Data Hub, offering harmonised geospatial data to boost public transport, healthcare, and cross-border governance in border regions.
Saturday, November 30th, saw the 2nd edition of the ‘Franco-Italian cooperation symposium’, organised by the Communauté d'Agglomération de la Riviera française in Menton.
The "Southern Alps Cross-Border Alliance", announced in February 2024 by the Metropole Nice Côte d'Azur, the Province of Imperia and the Province of Cuneo, presented its roadmap on November 29th, 2024, in Nice.
More than 300 participants met on December 2nd and 3rd at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris for the Bor-ders Forum, organised under the patronage of French President Emmanuel Macron by the Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière.
With this manifesto, which complements the ‘Cross-border deal’ of the Borders Forum, the MOT and its network call for a change in the way actors look at spaces crossed by a border as genuine ‘cross-border living areas’: territories linked by functional interdependence and a wealth of historical, cultural and interpersonal links, with an awareness of belonging to a common territory and a desire for cross-border territorial cohesion.
The Franco-Italian border is often associated with difficulties and problems of various kinds, often making it difficult for genuine ‘cross-border living areas’ to emerge, as envisaged by the Quirinal Treaty. This is precisely the spirit in which the Alcotraité project's annual event was held in Turin on November 26th, to mark the anniversary of the signing of the Quirinal Treaty.
The Observ'Alp partners met in Turin in December 2024 to discuss the initial results of the project and the next steps. The project, funded by the Interreg ALCOTRA programme, aims to set up the first system for observing and sharing territorial data and digital services between border areas, and more specifically between France, Italy and the Principality of Monaco.
As part of the Hungarian Presidency of the EU, the MOT took part in the ‘Art of Cooperation’ conference held in Budapest from November 13th to 15th. Dedicated to the future of European territorial cooperation, it was the occasion for the official launch of the ‘European cross-border platform’, an initiative of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and its partners CESCI, AEBR and the MOT, designed to bring together all those involved in cross-border cooperation at European level.
The Borders Forum 2024 is delighted to welcome Gabrielle Halpern, philosopher and specialist in the concept of hybridisation. Her work examines the intellectual, social and political boundaries that structure our societies. We asked her three questions that offer a glimpse at the discussions of the two round tables on the first day of the event.
As part of its mission to analyse and support border territories, the MOT is launching a new series of publications dedicated to cross-border monitoring. This first issue is devoted to a key topic: the dynamics of the economy and employment in cross-border contexts, and more specifically the flows of cross-border workers on the French borders. In French only.
At the beginning of October, the French government relaunched negotiations on the unemployment insurance agreement, handing over the reins to the social partners and calling for ‘additional savings of 400 million euros from next year’, while suggesting that the issue of cross-border workers, who ‘receive much higher salaries in certain neighbouring countries, particularly Switzerland and Luxembourg’, should be examined.
