This eighth edition, which runs to 160 pages, is aimed at French cross-border workers who work in Luxembourg. It gives an overview of the legislation in force, setting out the principal rules to which these workers are subject in the areas of labour law, social security and tax law.
This new issue of "InfObservatoire" sets out the cross-border forecasts of the North Lorraine Urban Planning Agency (AGAPE): "With 150,000 French cross-border workers in Luxembourg in 15 years and huge movement of goods, isn't it time […] to make the cross-border dimension a priority issue?"
The General Commission for Territorial Equality (CGET) has just published its 2017 annual report. An extensive chapter looks at the dynamics of cross-border employment. Border issues are also discussed in other sections of the report.
The Alzette Belval EGTC has just launched an interactive mapping system to provide fair access to leisure equipment and services across the cross-border territory. It became apparent that such an initiative was necessary to encourage its inhabitants to take part in activities on either side of the border.
To mark its 20th anniversary, the MOT produced a map of European cross-border territories. Now, on the occasion of its 21st General Assembly, it is publishing – and has had printed in the form of a large poster – a map showing the cross-border territories along France's borders.
The new French regions have to draw up a "Schéma régional d’aménagement, de développement durable et d’égalité des territoires" (SRADDET – Regional Spatial Planning, Sustainable Development and Territorial Equality Plan). In order to set out a unifying political project for its territory, the Grand Est Region has chosen to place the cross-border dimension at the heart of its actions and to involve its cross-border partners in drawing it up.
On 20 March 2018, at a summit meeting, France and Luxembourg signed four bilateral agreements, including one to strengthen cooperation with respect to cross-border transport. These are "a set of agreements that have a concrete impact on the daily lives of our citizens. Our objective is joint and equal financing of a number of transport infrastructures," explained the French Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe.
"Beyond the speeches and symbols, what meaning can the concept of a cross-border region have? By defining the region as an identity-based, territorial and institutional construction that endures over time, this work identifies and interrogates the specificities of this process in the cross-border setting. The issues are explored using the emblematic example of the Greater Region, which launched a long-term strategy in 2008 involving Lorraine, Luxembourg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Wallonia."
As part of the "UniGR - Centre for Border Studies" project, the six member universities (Kaiserslautern, Liège, Lorraine, Luxembourg, Saarland and Trier) of the University of the Greater Region (UniGR) are going to set up a "European centre of skills and resources in border studies" with international visibility.
The Regional Economic, Social and Environmental Council (Ceser) of the Grand Est region has published a study looking at the reduction of cross-border obstacles in the Grand Est region.
This publication, to which the MOT has contributed, notably by producing the maps, aims to take stock of cross-border cooperation in the field of health and the evolution of Europe’s role in the healthcare sector in global terms, by focussing on 7 experiences in Europe and by looking closely at the French-Belgian situation.
Every year, the MOT publishes a dossier highlighting exemplary cross-border projects along French borders.
Good quality healthcare for the populations of the French-Luxembourgish border regions, made more accessible, more rapid and closer to home - this is the objective of the framework agreement on health cooperation ratified by Luxembourg and France.
This is the aim of the project FagA/Centre d’aide à la mobilité transfrontalière (CAMT – Centre for Assistance with Cross-Border Mobility) launched on 1 July 2016 in the SaarMoselle Eurodistrict.
More user-friendly and better suited to players in the Greater Region but above all to the general public is how the new version of the Greater Region's geoportal, which was officially presented on 23 May, in the presence of Camille Gira, Luxembourg's Secretary of State for sustainable Development and Infrastructure, can be summed up.
The "Master's in border studies" is an international, interdisciplinary and multilingual study programme aimed at providing students who wish to pursue their careers in intercultural and cross-border settings with the main concepts and necessary analytical tools to understand the issues related to border territories and transnational cooperation.
On 25 April 2017 in Forbach, an event to launch the European project “Mobipro.GR“ took place.
This report, submitted by the General Commission for Territorial Equality (CGET) to the Prime Minister, recommends the creation of a pôle métropolitain encompassing more than 300,000 inhabitants on the border with Belgium and Luxembourg. This would enable North Lorraine to take advantage of its geographical position and of the great attractiveness of its immediate neighbours.
The field visits offered for the first time to participants in the MOT's 2017 general assembly, to Belval and Villerupt, proved to be a moment of very fruitful exchanges.
The annual meeting of the network on 15 March in Belval gave the MOT's new members the opportunity to speak, and these new members were presented to all of the participants.
Kussbus is a Luxembourg start-up which has just launched an innovative home-work shuttle service in the Luxembourg-France-Belgium-Germany border territory.
At the request of Luxembourg's Ministry for Sustainable Development and Infrastructures, acting on behalf of the different bodies of the Greater Region's Summit, a consortium led by the North Lorraine urban planning agency (AGAPE) in collaboration with the MOT, the urban planning agencies of Metz (AGURAM) and Nancy (ADUAN), and the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, carried out an assignment to assist with the drawing-up of the Greater Region's territorial development plan.
The 5th Franco-Luxembourg intergovernmental commission (IGC) for the strengthening of cross-border cooperation was held on 21 November 2016 in Luxembourg, in the presence of Harlem Désir, Secretary of State for European Affairs (FR), and Corinne Cahen, Minister for the Greater Region (LU).
After several decades of innovative projects undertaken between neighbouring countries, cross-border territories have become shared living spaces, and places for discovering a “European citizenship” experienced in daily life.
