The 3DS bill (standing for differentiation, decentralisation, deconcentration and simplification of local public action) was adopted in its final reading at the Assemblée Nationale and the Senate in France on 8-9 February. The MOT is delighted about the inclusion for the first time of a chapter devoted to cross-border cooperation in a piece of legislation.
The MOT took part in this conference organised within the framework of the French Partnership for Cities and Territories. It led one of its four workshops, on cross-border and European cooperation initiatives, and was able to get across the following message: sustainable development also needs to cross borders and requires cross-border cooperation.
"This is unique in France – we are the first!” declared Jean-Jacques Lasserre, the President of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques Departmental Council, on 27 January, accompanied by the Deputy-General of Gipuzkoa, at a press conference held to launch an innovative project named "ideiak 2022".
The Occitanie Region, the Generalitat of Catalonia and the government of the Balearic Islands approved in Brussels on Thursday the creation of a Youth Parliament. An initiative of the Occitanie Region, and its Vice-President, Nadia Pellefigue, which holds the rotating presidency of the Euroregion until the end of the year. We may recall that 2022 is the "European Year of Youth".
With the start of the 2022 marking the launch of France’s presidency of the European Union, it is an important time to champion the construction of a Europe that is closer to its citizens, a Europe of daily life, notably embodied by the cross-border territories, which contribute to cementing the European edifice.
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).
At their joint municipal council meeting that took place on 1 December 2021, the cities of Strasbourg and Kehl signed a cooperation agreement aimed at stepping up their exchanges and working on new cross-border projects. This initiative encompasses the competences of the Strasbourg Eurometropolis, which is a signatory to the agreement, thus marking a recognition of involvement at the intermunicipal level in the cooperation between the cities and the construction of a cross-border conurbation.
The PFVT (Partenariat Français pour la Ville et les Territoires – French Partnership for Cities and Territories) is French urban development players’ platform for discussion and promotion of their expertise internationally.
From 1 January until 30 June 2022, France holds the presidency of the European Union Council, for the 13th time. At a press conference on 9 December, President Emmanuel Macron set out the presidency’s three main themes: "recovery", "power" and "belonging". On this last point, he emphasised that the feeling of belonging to the European region had "declined" in France, as in other EU countries.
The Alzette Belval EGTC has unveiled its new cross-border strategy for the next six years.
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.
Initiated by Anne Sander MEP, the European Parliament's pilot project "Cross-Border Crisis Response Integrated Initiative" (CBCRII) has just been approved. It can now be implemented by DG REGIO.
On the eve of France’s presidency of the EU, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and the head of the Italian government, Mario Draghi, have signed in Rome a bilateral cooperation treaty, the “Quirinal Treaty”. Sixty years after the signature of the Franco-German Élysée Treaty, this “friendship pact” is historical and marks the desire, at the highest level of state, to advance Franco-Italian cross-border cooperation.
Continuing a collaboration going back 30 years, the territories located south of Monte Viso (3,841 metres), the iconic mountain in the Southern Alps, are structuring their cooperation within the framework of an integrated territorial plan supported by the ALCOTRA programme, known as “Terres Monviso”.
On 5 November 2021, the MOT team had the pleasure of hosting the partners of the integrated territorial plan known as GraiesLab – Active And Innovative Rural Generations – in their offices for a work meeting.
On 19 November, the French President Emmanuel Macron came to the Avesnois and the Thiérache to sign a second-generation contract between the French state and the territory.
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.
The policy brief "Cross-border monitoring and observation in Europe" explores the main takeaways from research studies done at EU level, compiling the most relevant EU documents, and aims to support the upscaling of good practices for cross-border monitoring and observation to pan-European level.
On the 10th anniversary of its creation on 27 October, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Euskadi Navarra Euroregion presented its new strategic plan.
Concrete expressions of the Aachen Treaty, two MORO* pilot projects on the Franco-German border aim to strengthen the cross-border dimension of territorial development practices, using an innovative method that has been widely tried out in Germany – the "Planspiel"**:
"Maintaining cross-border cooperation at the heart of the European project" is the ambition of the "Strasbourg Declaration", signed on 7 October 2021, in Strasbourg, by the three founding partners of the European Cross-Border Citizens' Alliance.
At the research seminar "The model of the Franco-German border – Reconciliation, cooperation, integration", organised by the Jean Monnet FRONTEM network, a "Manifesto on the future of cross-border cooperation in Europe", addressed to France’s presidency of the EU, and to the Conference on the Future of Europe, was published.
You’re part of it! It was under this motto that the 11th EGTC Platform meeting opened on 30 September, hosted by the Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino Euroregion (Austrian-Italian border), on the occasion of its 10th birthday.
"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.
