News

TERRITORIES

Exchanging views and experiences to shape the future

The current crisis across Europe has sparked criticisms, divisions and inconsistencies between countries, with significant impacts on the lives of people in border regions. However, the European Union – which is working to restart activity – is there to restore free movement in Europe, which is indispensable for the development of European citizenship. As a central part of the recovery, we need to rethink the challenges of the post-Covid period, such as education, agriculture, healthcare, trade, eco-friendly mobility and sustainable development.

TERRITORIES

Editorial by Loïc Delhuvenne, Director of the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis

PUBLICATION

Thematic issue: "Borders and cross-border labor markets : Opportunities and challenges"

Edited by Isabelle Pigeron-Piroth (University of Luxembourg) and Rachid Belkacem (University of Lorraine), the latest thematic issue published by the UniGR-Center for Border Studies provides an analysis of cross-border employment and related issues. Comprising seven chapters contributed by ten authors, it has a preface by Jean Peyrony, the MOT’s Director-General.

TERRITORIES

France-Switzerland: A Léman Coherence Strategy

Since 2008, the Léman Council has provided a Léman Coherence Transport Strategy. This initiative, which is led by the Canton of Valais, provides an overview for the whole of the Léman region.

TERRITORIES

The "Espace Mont-Blanc" refines its strategy for adapting to climate change

Drawing on 29 years of cross-border cooperation, the "Espace Mont-Blanc" ("Mont-Blanc area") on the Franco-Italian-Swiss border is striving to adapt its territory by seeking joint responses to the impacts of climate change.

EUROPE

The European Parliament calls for greater protection for cross-border and seasonal workers

Resolution adopted on 19 June.

MOT

A publication by the MOT: The Covid-19 crisis on French borders

The MOT has published an analysis of the consequences for cross-border territories of the health crisis – the result of a call for experiences issued to all of its members. Organised in three main parts, it aims to set out the impacts, difficulties and initiatives linked to the management of the Covid-19 health crisis in cross-border territories.

COVID-19

Calls for an easing of border restrictions

While a circular issued by France’s Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, dated 12 May has just extended France’s internal border controls until 31 October 2020,1 there have been growing calls to give attention to the difficulties faced in border territories, notably for the 360,000 cross-border workers who cross the French border every day to work in a neighbouring country.

COVID-19

Restrictions on movement and introduction of health measures along France's borders

COVID-19

The Franco-German border: Towards a cross-border model of crisis management?

The barriers that were put up between the two countries from the start of the health crisis have had a major impact on citizens who were used to crossing the border on a daily basis*. In this context, there have been many local cooperation initiatives and the MOT would like to highlight them.

COVID-19

Players in cross-border territories have their say

"The coronavirus crisis is putting our European ideals to the test, and obliges us to invent tomorrow’s world. We need to think, in the design of our policies, about the impact of our decisions on our neighbours."

COVID-19

GeoRhena, an observation tool for the Upper Rhine

GeoRhena, the Upper Rhine geographic information system, has developed a simplified dynamic mapping tool that enables people to view and search for regularly updated data on developments in the Covid-19 epidemic in the Franco-German-Swiss trinational region.

EUROPE

Reopening borders and free movement: Europe's recommendations

FRANCE

Editorial by Yves Le Breton, Director-General of the National Agency for Territorial Cohesion (ANCT, France)

The National Agency for Territorial Cohesion, which was created out of the merger of the CGET, the EPARECA and the Digital Agency, was founded on 1 January 2020. Its name well encapsulates its purpose – which is to strengthen territorial cohesion and combat social division. To do this, the ANCT supports local elected representatives in the implementation of their projects, adapting to the needs on the ground.

EUROPE

MEPs call for the removal of border restrictions

Anne Sander, Vice-President of the MOT, and Pascal Arimont and other MEPs have called on the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, "to firmly recommend the immediate ending of checks and entry restrictions on our internal borders".

COVID-19

The MOT's maps showing the easing of lockdown measures along France's borders

The MOT has published on its website and on social media a series of maps showing the situation with respect to the easing of lockdown measures along France’s borders.

FRANCE

A Straits Committee has been set up by the local authorities on either side of the Channel

Six local authorities bordering the Strait of Dover and the North Sea have decided to turn their bilateral relations into a multilateral area for dialogue in order to encourage the emergence of cross-border projects across the territory of the Strait.

EUROPE

INTERACT – "Introducing more territoriality into Interreg"

The INTERACT programme offers training courses to players involved in the management of and decision-making for Interreg programmes. Jean Peyrony, the MOT’s Director-General, contributed to a training session devoted to the relevance and concepts of territoriality and functional areas in the upcoming 2021-2027 programming period, in which political objective 5 aims to give greater prominence to territorial strategies and action by local players.

COVID-19

The Committee of the Regions' exchange platform

The European Committee of the Regions, the European Commission (DG REGIO), the MOT, the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR) and the Central European Service for Cross-Border Initiatives (CESCI) are working together to give a voice to local and regional players in border territories in the context of the Covid-19 health crisis. You can now share your border region and cross-border experiences on the platform created by the Committee of the Regions.

EUROPE

A European roadmap to lifting coronavirus containment measures

The European Commission, in cooperation with the President of the European Council, has put forward a European roadmap towards lifting coronavirus containment measures.

EUROPE

Preparation of the European programmes for 2021-2027: What account is being taken of the cross-border territorial approach?

The Covid-19 crisis demands that European and cross-border cooperation be strengthened. The 2021-2027 programmes, the preparation of which is continuing, should be informed by the lessons learned from it. The draft regulations proposed by the Commission, which are in the process of being negotiated with the Parliament and the Council, contain positive innovations for cross-border territories that address their aspirations, as expressed in the Cross-Border Cooperation Strategies along France’s borders. The MOT encourages all of the stakeholders to take them on board.

EUROPE

The Commission calls for "cross-border interoperability” in the use of technology and data

TERRITORIES

The Basque Country Community has also adopted a strategy based on the Cross-Border Cooperation Strategy

On 15 December 2018, the Basque Country Community approved a “cross-border cooperation” competence. Drawing on the Cross-Border Cooperation Strategy approach, it embarked on a consultative process to draw up its cross-border cooperation strategy up to 2030. The objective was to codesign cross-border public policy and to be aligned with the framework of the forthcoming 2021-2027 European programming period.

TERRITORIES

The four levels of cooperation of the Nice Côte d'Azur Metropolis

The Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis is a unique cross-border territory, located between the sea and the mountains and adjacent to two borders: an internal EU border over 100 km long with the Piedmont Region in Italy and an international border with the Principality of Monaco. Its 2020-2030 Cross-Border Cooperation Strategy, adopted on 16 December 2019, is organised into four complementary levels of work.

TERRITORIES

The Strasbourg Eurometropolis’s Cross-Border Cooperation Strategy

The territory of the Strasbourg Eurometropolis has an abundance of players and initiatives in the area of cross-border cooperation, for the most part designed and implemented with its German partners in Kehl and Ortenau. It also has several tools for dialogue and cross-border governance that enable it to foster and coordinate the daily contacts that make it one of the centres for cooperation in the Upper Rhine area.