On March 11th 2024 a meeting was held in Kehl, Germany, to launch the Franco-German working group responsible for developing and coordinating mechanisms to take account of the "border reality" in national legislative procedures.
The independent Group of High-Level Specialists on the Future of Cohesion Policy - set up in 2023 by Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms Elisa Ferreira - presented its report on 20 February 2024.
MEPs of the Legal Affairs Committee approved draft rules aimed at removing barriers to the cross-border activities, funding and mobility of non-profit associations in the EU.
A "Southern Alps Cross-border Alliance" was launched on February 8th 2024 in Imperia in the presence of Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Nice, President of the Métropole Nice Côte d'Azur and Deputy President of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region, and Claudio Scajola, Mayor of Imperia and President of the Province of Imperia.
The Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU and negotiators from the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on February 6, 2024, regarding the amendment of EU law governing the functioning of the Schengen area at both its external and internal borders.
As part of the partnership between the MOT and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, represented by its Department of Spatial Planning, the MOT led a Franco-German-Luxembourgian cross-border workshop on January 31st 2024 at the Maison de la Nature du Pays de Sierck (Moselle).
The Corsican Territorial Authority (Collectivité de Corse) and the Autonomous Region of Sardinia have launched a fundamental process of cooperation to ensure joint management of environmental issues in the Bucchi di Bunifaziu area.
Do you live near the franco-german border? Do you deal with public services on both sides of the border? Share your experience with us!
From the English Channel to the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, cooperation in sea basins was at the heart of discussions at the conference on Regional Cooperation in Maritime Areas (ReCMA), organised in September by the University of Lille, the TVES laboratory and the MOT. To report on this work, the MOT is publishing a "Focus" on this theme at the heart of European integration.
A new initiative in the cross-border legal field, the "Justice without borders" pilot project acts as a Franco-German access point to law in Kehl.
To underline the needs of the border regions and their citizens, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) launched the European Cross-Border Platform, the successor of the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) Platform. The MOT is fully involved in this process, and sits on the Steering Committee alongside AEBR and CESCI.
MEPs have reiterated their readiness to start interinstitutional negotiations with the EU governments on new Commission proposal inspired by the Parliament´s resolution from September 2023 on new mechanism removing legal and administrative cross-border obstacles and fostering cooperation.They would like to reach an agreement on the proposal before the EU elections in June 2024.
On January 22nd, 2019, France and Germany signed the Franco-German cooperation and integration treaty of Aachen.
The European Committee of the Regions invites the European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation to submit their applications for the 2024 edition of the "Building Europe across borders" – Award for EGTCs.
Mobility, public services, health, housing... how can we respond to the cross-border phenomenon between France and Luxembourg? The mayor of Thionville, chairman of the Pôle métropolitain frontalier (PMF), explains what solidarity measures need to be put in place in his area, where 70% of the 120,000 French cross-border workers in Luxembourg are concentrated. READ MORE
On January 25th, 2024, the European Commission announced that it had granted €594 million to eight cross-border energy infrastructure projects. Of these, three are in France, and two are on the Franco-Belgian border.
Nine territorial meetings were organised by the MOT, with the invaluable help of its partners, between October 2023 and January 2024: Ardennes-Meuse, Jura Arc, Grande Région, France-Italy-Monaco, Rhin supérieur, Hauts-de-France, Pyrénées Occidentales, Pyrénées Centre-Est, Greater Geneva.
On December 1st, 2023, the MOT and the National Agency for Territorial Cohesion (ANCT) co-organised the final webinar presenting the results of the Franco-German MORO pilot project, which was attended by more than 100 people.
The MOT has been commissioned by the SaarMoselle Eurodistrict to support the cross-border territory in implementing the recommendations drawn up during the Franco-German pilot project for spatial planning (MORO).
For almost a year, the MOT, supported by sixteen partners, has been conducting a "cross-border living areas" experiment on five pilot sites on the French borders: PAMINA Eurodistrict (French-German border), the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis (French-Belgian border), Nord Lorrain - Luxembourg (French-Luxembourg border), Southern Alps - Riviera (French-Italian-Monegasque border) and Franco-Vaud-Geneva conurbation (French-Swiss border)
On both sides of the Pyrenees, the border territories have a long history of cooperation and are involved in a multitude of cross-border projects in all fields, testifying to the vitality of exchanges across the border.
The new allowance designed to protect the purchasing power of civil servants in the Franco-Swiss cross-border area, announced on September 28th, 2023 by Stanislas Guerini, the French Minister for Transformation and the Civil Service, was extended on December 12th to 133 municipalities, instead of the 61 initially announced.
On December 12th, 2023, the Commission adopted its amended proposal for a regulation, formerly known as "ECBM", renamed "FCBS" ("Facilitating Cross-Border Solutions"). Its aim: to relaunch the creation of this European tool to "facilitate the use of cross-border solutions" by "helping Member States to remove obstacles that affect the daily lives of citizens living in cross-border regions of Europe".
