The 14th episode of the Beyond Borders: Breakfast Debate Series, organized by the Border Focal Point Network, held on November 9th 2023, focused on the future of EU border regions within the post-2027 Cohesion Policy.
From November 13th to 15th, the University of Strasbourg's Jean Monnet Franco-German Center of Excellence held its "Castle talks" in Strasbourg. Experts from Canada, Germany, the United States, Hungary and Poland attended the event, which also featured Jean Peyrony, Director General of the MOT.
MOT General Director, Jean Peyrony, spoke at ITEM's annual conference in The Hague on November 17, 2023.
MOT president Christian Dupessey, mayor of Annemasse, reflects on the issue of housing in border areas, following Minister Stanislas Guerini's announcement of a cost-of-living allowance for public servants affected by the real estate pressures associated with Switzerland's proximity. Read his editorial!
In Santiago, the Commission launched a consultation of citizens and stakeholders to discuss the future of territorial cooperation. A "toolkit" dedicated to the implementation of public consultations, to which the MOT contributed, was thus created by DG REGIO. It can now be consulted online.
President Emmanuel Macron's state visit to Switzerland on November 15th and 16th, 2023, at the invitation of the Swiss Federal Council, put the spotlight on cross-border issues.
The French and Belgian members of the "Ardennes Cross-Border Strategy" (Stratégie de l'Ardenne Transfrontalière) met on November 9th, 2023 for a strategic committee meeting at the Convention Center in Vieilles-Forges (Ardennes).
With the proposal for a new European tool, the ECBM, now relaunched, the issue of cross-border obstacles is front and center. An opportunity for the MOT to publish a new FOCUS!
Just a few hours before the first meeting of the Quirinal Cross-Border Cooperation Committee (CCF), the Piedmont Region hosted the launch of the "ALCOTraité" Interreg project, which brings together the MOT and the five regions of the Franco-Italian "Alpine" cooperation area.
On October 31st, 2023, the Piedmontese capital hosted the inaugural meeting of the new Cross-Border Cooperation Committee (CCF), a result of the Quirinal Treaty signed two years ago between France and Italy.
To highlight concrete cross-border initiatives, the MOT publishes a new project sheet every month. Discover the project sheet for November, following the meeting of the network's "Cross-border ecological transition" working group.
On October 17th, 2023, the MOT network's "Cross-border ecological transition" working group held its 5th meeting. This was an opportunity to investigate issues linked to cross-border management of water resources in the context of climate change.
In 2022, the Metropolitan Pole of the French Genevois, along with several of its partners in the Greater Geneva area, committed to developing a cross-border territorial vision.
This was the wish expressed by the Franco-German Cross-Border Cooperation Committee (CCT) at its second annual meeting on October 23rd, 2023, in Offenburg, chaired by the Secretaries of State for Europe and General Secretaries for Franco-German Cooperation, Anna Lührmann and Laurence Boone.
Stalled for three years in the Council, the legislative proposal for a "mechanism to remove legal and administrative obstacles in a cross-border context", initiated by the European Commission, has now been relaunched. The Parliament asks the Commission to present a revised legislative proposal. The Commission has three months to respond.
Each year, the European Week of Regions and Cities brings together a diverse community of participants for the largest event in Brussels dedicated to cohesion policy. This year's event took place from October 9th to 12th. The MOT organized a workshop on cross-border teleworking and its impact on border regions.
This workshop, organized by the PAMINA Eurodistrict with the participation of the MOT, the Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino Euroregion and the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis, was held on October 11th as part of the European Week of Regions and Cities.
Note a contribution from the MOT on the "SaarMoselle Trade Study: The importance of cooperation" conducted as part of the MORO project. More information on the MORO project.
Switzerland employs over 180,000 French cross-border commuters. Salaries are among the highest in Europe. This high level of attractiveness is having a major impact on the French side of the border, in areas such as Pays de Gex in Ain and Annemasse in Haute-Savoie, where salaries cannot keep up: high living costs, strong pressure on property prices, job vacancies in the public sector, etc. The consequences - which are not new - are numerous and complicated to resolve.
At the "Salon du Frontalier", organized by the Groupement transfrontalier européen (GTE), a round-table discussion on access to medical care in border areas led to lively exchanges between elected representatives and experts from both sides of the Franco-Swiss border.
The project to recover waste heat from the Badische Stahlwerke (BSW), Kehl's steelworks, is now entering its concrete phase.
The informal transport ministerial meeting held in Barcelona on September 22th, 2023 as part of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU concluded with the signing of the Barcelona Declaration: "a commitment to accessible, affordable and equitable mobility to promote social and territorial cohesion".
With the signing of an agreement between Bas-Rhin and Rhineland-Palatinate on September 27th in Mulhouse, French and German firefighters can now work together throughout the cross-border area along the Rhine, in the event of fire or disaster.
In this collection, 22 authors from a wide range of backgrounds were invited to answer key questions to fuel debate in the run-up to Luxembourg's parliamentary elections in October 2023, and beyond, in order to shed light on the country's major challenges. An entire chapter is devoted to cross-border issues, with a contribution from Aurélien Biscaut, Secretary General of the MOT.
"For over 20 years, the Pas-de-Calais department has maintained strong, friendly bilateral relations with its neighbor across the Channel, the county of Kent.
