As part of the "CAP'M" project financed by the Interreg MARITTIMO programme, a new legal study has just been launched to promote closer cross-border cooperation between France and Italy on the preservation of the Cap Martin and Capo Mortola marine protected areas, and by extension the Larvotto underwater reserve in Monaco.
On March 26th, 2025, the Politecnico di Milano and its partners* organised a research seminar entitled ‘Re-Mapping Borderlands Between Critical & Operative Approaches’, bringing together international experts to discuss the role of maps in understanding and transforming borderlands.
The MOT has written an article in the latest edition of the "Stories of European cooperation" written by IVY volunteers and published by Interact: "Alcotraité: Strenghtening cross border cooperation and governance".
Following its plenary assembly on the 23rd of April 2025, the Southern Region published its Europe report: "On track for 2030: the Region commits to being a driving force for cross-border and Alpine cooperation".
March marked an important milestone for the Alcotraité project on cross-border obstacles between France and Italy. The three territorial workshops organised by the Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière (MOT) and the partner regions in collaboration with the six ALCOTRA PITER+* enabled the project to get to the heart of the matter by mobilising more than 150 participants from the northern to the southern ends of the French-Italian land border.
Find the description of each pilot action in our thumbnails!
On March 6th and 7th, 2025, a seminar entitled ‘The Quirinal Treaty and the maritime border, Corsica and the maritime living area: a relevant concept for close cross-border cooperation’ was held in Bastia.
On February 6th, 2025, the second meeting of the Franco-Italian Border Cooperation Committee set up by the Quirinal Treaty was held in Nice It follows the meeting held in October 2023 in Turin. The MOT was present at this meeting.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Each year, the compensation system for cross-border workers represents an additional cost of around 800 M€ for the French unemployment insurance scheme. Following the publication of its report, the Unédic, that manages French unemployment insurance, is calling for a renegotiation of agreements with neighboring countries.
The 2024 edition of the Saint-Dié International Geography Festival (FIG), the annual meeting place for French-speaking geographers, will focus on border issues. In addition to this year's theme, ‘Lands’, an opportunity to explore the challenge of ZAN (Net Zero Artificialisation) and its implications, the guest territory for the 2024 edition was a macro-regional area familiar to the MOT network: the Alpine Arc.
On September 1st, the Savoy Department and the Aosta Valley organized the first Alpine Festival at the Little St Bernard Pass.
For over a year, the MOT has been conducting an experiment on “cross-border living areas”, supported by seventeen partners in five pilot sites. You can now consult the final report and download our infographic of the study's key takeaways. Don't forget to register for our webinar on June 5th!
A conference entitled “The cross-border living area: a laboratory for European integration between Italy and France” was held in Rome on April 18th, 2024. It brought together researchers, elected representatives and technicians from French and Italian border territories, both land and sea, as well as national administrations. The day of reflection was jointly organized by CERDACFF (DITER), Université Nice Côte d'Azur, and CNR/ ISSIRFA.
On April 11th, 2024, in Strasbourg, a seminar on cross-border governance was organized by the University of Strasbourg and the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence. A round-table discussion on the three bilateral treaties (Aachen, Quirinal, Barcelona), attended by the ambassadors in charge of borders in France, Italy and Spain and the German Consul General in Strasbourg, was co-hosted by the Euro-institut and the MOT.
The report entitled "Les nouveaux enjeux de développement des territoires de montagne : Pour une montagne vivante en 2030" ("New development challenges for mountain regions: For a living mountain in 2030") by Joël Giraud, Member of Parliament for the Hautes-Alpes, has just been published.
On April 11th and 12th, 2024, the partners of Observ'Alp, a project financed by the Interreg ALCOTRA program, met in Marseille to continue their work on cross-border observation (France-Italy-Monaco) and take part in the second meeting of the Steering Committee (COPIL) and the Collective Intelligence Committee (CIC).
