The EGTC Platform of the Committee of the Regions held its annual meeting on 20 April in Brussels, on the topic of the impact of the Schengen Area crisis on cross-border cooperation. During the event, the 2016 EGTC Award was given to the French-Spanish cross-border hospital in Cerdanya, the first of its kind in Europe.
Cross-border cooperation was on the agenda for the 18th Franco-German Council of Ministers presided by François Hollande and Angela Merkel on 7 April 2016 in Metz.
Over the past few months, the European Union has seen more and more border controls put in place within the Schengen Area. Two main reasons are put forward to justify them: fear of terrorism and the need to combat illegal immigration.
"Every day, we hear about another member country of the Schengen Area reinstating identity checks at its national borders in order to stop the inflow of illegal immigrants. While checks are necessary, they have a major impact on the daily lives of those who live close to these borders and habitually cross them: long traffic queues have appeared on our roads and the costs are starting to be felt by businesses and individuals."
On 4 March, the European Commission unveiled its roadmap for a return to the "normal" functioning of the Schengen Area of free movement "by the end of 2016".
France-Stratégie has published an analysis of the economic consequences of abandoning the Schengen agreements.
Following Sweden's decision to introduce on 4 January 2016 systematic checks on all people coming from Denmark in order to better control the influx of refugees, the 15,000 cross-border workers who every day travel by public transport between the two countries across the famous Öresund Bridge, a symbol of the two countries' long-standing and extensive cross-border integration, are facing long queues on a daily basis.
A seminar entitled "A world without borders - Refugees, cooperation and territories" was held within the framework of the ESPON 2020 programme, in cooperation with the Luxembourg presidency of the EU Council, on 8-9 December 2015 in Luxembourg.
The DG for Migration and Home Affairs of the European Commission has produced seven two-minute films on the benefits of the free movement of people and goods, in English, French and German. These films touch on tangible cross-border topics such as employment, education, health, commerce, border controls, etc.
The Musée de l’Histoire de l’Immigration (Museum of Immigration History) in Paris is curating an exhibition focusing on borders, from 10th November 2015 to 29th May 2016. From works of art to maps, contemporary photographs and migrants’ own accounts, this unique exhibition sheds light on the role of borders around the world and contemporary issues surrounding them.
An agreement between the Government of the French Republic and the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium concerning cross-border cooperation in the area of policing and customs has been in force since 1 October 2015 in France.
A French-German ministerial conference, attended by French secretary of state for European affairs Harlem Désir and his German counterpart Michael Roth, both general-secretaries for French-German cooperation, took place on 6 and 7 July in Metz.
After the launch in 2008 of the first French-German rapid intervention facility on the Rhine – the "Europa 1 fire-boat" – the Fire and Rescue Service of the Bas-Rhin Department has worked for five years on the implementation of a new INTERREG project focused on the training of rescue services in the Upper Rhine in combating river-related risks.
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.
