Taking place on 28 September 2014 between Berus (Überherrn, Saarland) and Berviller-en-Moselle (Lorraine) as part of the annual event of the Interreg IVA Greater Region Programme and the 10th anniversary of the Interreg PIG (Public Interest Group), the cross-border walk attracted 170 persons, partner authorities and project operators accompanied by their families, from Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and France.
The TransParcNet meeting of European cross-border protected areas took place this year on the French-Belgian border. An initiative of the EUROPARC Federation, this annual gathering brings together managers of protected areas from across the whole of Europe all of whom are faced with cross-border issues.
Author: Markus Rieder, Ph.D. (public administration); February 2014, 418p, €65. Published in French.
With the launch of the Dutch presidency of the Benelux Union, a new "Benelux Convention on Cross-Border and Interterritorial Cooperation" was signed on 20 February in The Hague.
The West-Vlaanderen/Flandre-Dunkerque-Côte d'Opale EGTC has just published a cross-border public transport map.
The MOT produced a guidebook entitled “The legal framework for cross-border cooperation. The legal instruments available to cross-border projects” which is aimed at helping cooperation practitioners to choose the legal form that is most appropriate for their needs. The document is available in six languages: French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch.
On 16 January 2014 cross-border meetings took place in Maubeuge, organised by the Charleroi-Sud Hainaut region and the Communauté d’Agglomération Maubeuge-Val de Sambre (CAMVS) to reinforce their collaboration initiated in 2011.
The French-Belgian health monitoring unit (EEIG OFBS) and the Wallonia-Lorraine-Luxembourg cross-border health monitoring unit (EEIG LUXLORSAN) organised a conference on health systems and cross-border cooperation, which took place on 18 December 2013 at the Committee of the Regions offices.
The overall objective of the Eurometropolis strategy is to “proceed from the collective project to practical implementations”.
The MOT organized five information seminars in September and October 2013 on operational arrangements for cross-border projects on French borders. Each seminar covered one or two of the French borders. Consult the documentation.
The seminar on legal instruments for cross-border projects organised by the MOT on 29 October 2013 in Lille (at the Nord-Pas de Calais Conseil Régional) brought together nearly 70 French, Belgian and English players involved in cross-border cooperation.
The Parc Naturel Régional Scarpe-Escaut (France) and the Parc Naturel des Plaines de l’Escaut (Belgium), which together form the Hainaut Cross-border Nature Park, received the “Transboundary Park” certificate at the closing ceremony of the annual conference of the EUROPARC Federation on 12 October 2013 in Hungary.
The MOT produced a map summarising the main cross-border agreements, structures and programmes on French borders.
In a dynamic context of reform - redefinition of cross-border policy and decentralisation process in France, preparation of the 2014-2020 programmes at European level - the MOT has produced a methodological guidebook aimed at improving articulation between cohesion policy, governance structures and cross-border territorial approaches.
