On March 19th, 2024, the Government of the Republic and Canton of Jura and the European Collectivity of Alsace signed a new roadmap. The aim is to redefine the areas of cooperation between the two neighbours for the years 2024 and 2025.
The Commissariat à l'aménagement du Massif du Jura (Jura Massif Planning Commission) has joined forces with the MOT to carry out a cross-border study to take better account of the Franco-Swiss nature of the Jura mountains.
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 2023, the Jura Mountains Development Commission (Commissariat à l'aménagement du Massif du Jura), which is responsible for defining the objectives and actions needed for the development, planning and protection of the mountain range, undertook a cross-border study.
On Friday, March 17th, 2023 the 3rd meeting of the MOT working group "Cross-border ecological transition" was held on the theme of decarbonizing cross-border mobility. The exchanges were organized in two parts.
The Interreg France-Switzerland VI 2021-2027 programme was officially launched at an event in Arc-et-Senans (Doubs) on 9 June 2022.
After the AGUR(1), AGAPE(2) and the Saint-Omer AUD(3), the MOT has the pleasure of welcoming two new urban planning agencies into its network: the Besançon Centre Franche-Comté Urban Planning Agency (AUDAB) and the Atlantic-Pyrenees Urban Planning Agency (AUDAP).
This autumn, and for the second consecutive year, the MOT organised nine “territorial meetings”, so as to keep in close contact with the members of its network, and involve them in preparing its annual programme. Held successively in Besançon, Strasbourg, Lille, Annemasse, Charleville-Mézières, Nice, Urrugne, Perpignan and Metz, both virtually and in person, the meetings brought together close to 200 participants in total.
The four roundtables held during the MOT’s annual event on 21-22 September gave rise to rich discussions among the 200 participants present in Morteau and La Chaux-de-Fonds.
In the presence of Joël Giraud, Minister of State for Rural Affairs under the Minister for Territorial Cohesion and Relations with Local Government, more than a hundred participants from all of France’s borders gathered for the MOT’s general assembly on 21-22 September in Morteau and La Chaux-de-Fonds, at the invitation of the Doubs Urban Conurbation.
"The Doubs Urban Conurbation was set up in 2006. Initially an informal collaboration, it led to the creation of a local grouping of cross-border cooperation, the only one in the Franco-Swiss Jura Arc running between the Basel Trinational Eurodistrict and Greater Geneva. Today the LGCC comprises the Val de Morteau group of municipalities and the towns of Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle.
The MOT’s general assembly is taking place this year in Morteau and La Chaux-de-Fonds on 21-22 September, at the invitation of the Doubs Urban Conurbation, a member of its network. Joël Giraud, Minister of State under the Minister for Territorial Cohesion, in charge of Rurality (France) and former Vice-President of the MOT, will speak at the end of the first day.
In October 2020, the MOT was tasked by the National Agency for Territorial Cohesion and the Banque des Territoires as an “action partner” in the national programme “Small Towns of Tomorrow”.
On 16 December 2020, UNESCO added craftsmanship of mechanical watchmaking and art mechanics to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This listing gives recognition to an emblematic living tradition in the Franco-Swiss Jura Arc. The candidacy was regarded as exemplary by UNESCO in that it raises awareness of the importance of intangible cultural heritage in a cross-border space
Mountain areas represent over 40% of France’s borders. Among France’s mountain ranges, three of them are located in border regions: the Jura, the Pyrenees and the Alps. This new brochure sets out their common cross-border issues and challenges, while also highlighting concrete cross-border projects.
On 23 January 2020, the MOT took part in the conference "Spatial planning in the Franco-Swiss Jura Arc", held in La Chaux-de-Fonds (CH) within the framework of the Interreg V – ARC-AD programme. As well as being an opportunity to share views on spatial planning issues in the cross-border territory, the purpose of the conference was to present the ARC-AD tool, a decision-making tool designed to facilitate the coordination of territorial planning across the Jura Arc.
The Greater Besançon Metropolis is particular in being the first major urban centre one gets to when coming from the Swiss Jura Arc, while at the same time being relatively far away from it. The Jura mountain range is both a geographical obstacle and a territorial asset; indeed, the border region is a well-preserved area with a wealth of shared natural and cultural features.
Cross-border metropolitan cooperation initiatives were spotlighted at the MOT network’s day-long meeting, co-organised with the Greater Besançon Metropolis, on 25 September.
With an exploration of the imbalances between the productive and residential economies, the Jura Arc Cross-Border Forum ended its thematic series of discussions on the economy involving all the members of its committee.
The Jura Arc Cross-Border Statistical Observatory has published statistical portraits of four cooperation territories identified along the Franco-Swiss border as part of the 2016-2020 strategy of the Trans-Jura Conference.
"The regions and countries that border the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region are very attractive to its inhabitants, businesses and territorial authorities." The Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regional Economic, Social and Environmental Council has attempted to understand the dynamics at work in the neighbouring territories and their impact on the region, in an 84-page document entitled "From good neighbourly relations to a development strategy".
The Cross-Border Jura Arc Forum celebrated the 10th anniversary of its creation on Saturday 21 October 2017 at the town hall of Le Russey in the Haut-Doubs Department.
Following the signing on 27 September 2016 of the framework agreement on cross-border health cooperation between France and Switzerland, the first morning of reflection organised by the Trans-Jura Conference, which brought together elected officials and cross-border health cooperation stakeholders, aimed to take stock of existing cross-border cooperation in the field of health and to determine the desired areas for future cooperation.
At a meeting in Belfort on 1 December 2016, a framework agreement bringing together seven universities in the Franco-Swiss Jura Arc was signed, putting in place a "Community of Knowledge".
The Jura Arc Cross-Border Forum commissioned an original piece of work from Thomas Brasey as part of his thematic cycle entitled "Le Doubs Miroir" ("The Doubs Mirror") in order for him to train his photographer's eye on the cross-border territory between Saint-Ursanne in the Swiss Jura and Saint-Hippolyte in Franche-Comté, two municipalities linked by the river Doubs.
