The draft opinion of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) on the European Cross-Border Mechanism 2.0 (rapporteur Magali Altounian) was unanimously adopted by the COTER Commission on June 23rd, 2023, with a view to final adoption in October 2023.
Cross-border obstacles affect the daily development of cross-border living areas and services dedicated to their inhabitants. The reduction of these obstacles requires a high degree of cooperation between Member States. That is why, in 2018, the European Commission proposed a tool, the "European Cross-Border Mechanism" (ECBM), dedicated to the resolution of cross-border legal and administrative obstacles. But the Commission's proposal for a regulation on this tool is currently stalled at the Council.
The Treaty of Aachen mandated the Franco-German Cross-Border Cooperation Committee (CBC) to analyse the impact of legislation on border regions, with the aim of avoiding "the emergence of new legal difficulties in everyday cross-border life".
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.
This European Commission report, published on 13 July, looks at the lessons of the Covid crisis and the initiatives carried out since the publication of its 2017 Communication “Boosting growth and cohesion in EU border regions”.
Adopted on 1 July, this resolution constitutes an official contribution from the CoR to the Conference on the Future of Europe. It sets out the concrete proposals of the CoR and the European Cross-Border Citizens’ Alliance (AEBR, MOT and CESCI) to put cross-border cooperation back at the top of the EU's policy agenda after a year disrupted by the pandemic.
Organised by the European Committee of the Regions in association with the other founding partners of the European Cross-Border Citizens Alliance (the MOT, AEBR and, CESCI), on 5 July the Conference on the Future of Cross-Border Cooperation brought together nearly 200 participants.
On 23 June, the European Parliament adopted the five “cohesion policy” regulations including that on the Interreg programme.
The latest Franco-German Council of Ministers, which met on 31 May 2021 alongside the meeting between Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel, took stock of the implementation of the Aachen Treaty and the substantial advances in Franco-German cooperation over the past few months. It was also an opportunity to launch new cooperation initiatives, notably in the areas of healthcare, culture and youth, as well as to prepare for the major upcoming international and European events.
Funded by the Interreg programme Alcotra, the "PROSANTE" project is dedicated to the creation of a cross-border healthcare network linking the hospitals in Briançon and Susa on the Franco-Italian border.
On 16 March 2021, French Parliament definitively adopted the draft legislation aimed at simplifying and developing local experimentation initiated by territorial authorities.
At the request of the French Federation of Alpine and Mountaineering Clubs, the MOT assisted – between April 2019 and November 2020 – the partners in the Interreg project "ENTREPYR II" in the choice and implementation of a cross-border legal structure to ensure the long-term future of cross-border cooperation regarding mountain shelters in the Pyrenees.
In February 2021, the European Committee of the Regions published an opinion entitled “Cross-Border Public Services in Europe”, for which the rapporteur is Pavel Branda (ECR/CZ), Deputy Mayor of Rádlo (Czech Republic).
In 2020, the French government put the so-called 4D Bill – on decentralisation, deconcentration, differentiation and decomplexification – on the political agenda. This is good news for cross-border territories.
Following on from the words of the Minister Jacqueline Gourault*, which give cross-border territories the role of “laboratories for the next stage of decentralisation”, serving as areas of experimentation at the forefront of territorial differentiation, the MOT wishes to elaborate with its network a joint position to incorporate the cross-border dimension into the 3D bill (Decentralisation, Differentiation and Deconcentration). This is due to be presented in the Council of Ministers in January 2021.
The third call for proposals in the framework of the b-solutions initiative is opened. Deadline extended until 11.10.2020!
Resolution adopted on 19 June.
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.
The Cross-Border Cooperation Strategy first appeared with the French MAPTAM Act of 2014, which affirmed the role of metropolises. It is a strategic coordination document for the French side of the border aimed at enabling cross-border actions. The act provides for its drafting by metropolises that border on a foreign country, in association with "the department, the region and the municipalities concerned".
The article examines issues specific to the development of the European Cross-Border Mechanism (ECBM) proposed by the European Commission for the next programming period. It describes the manner in which the ECBM tool proposal arose through the action of an ensemble of "policy entrepreneurs". The article highlights the role of the MOT as a facilitator and a relay.
At the 2019 edition of the European Week of Regions and Cities, which brought together over 9,000 participants in Brussels, the MOT ran a workshop entitled "No country is an island: joint cross-border strategies for a clean energy transition".
With the support of the International Visegrad Fund, CESCI, the Hungarian equivalent of the MOT, and its partners along the borders between Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland have put forward proposals concerning the ECBM and the resolution of cross-border obstacles between these four countries. They suggest the creation of a European network of national contact points that could either be set up at national level or be pooled by several countries, as happens in the Nordic Council.
The annual meeting of the EGTC Platform took place in Palma, Spain, on 27 September 2019, in partnership with the Pyrenees-Mediterranean Euroregion EGTC and the Government of the Balearic Islands. Jean Peyrony made a contribution in a roundtable devoted to the new ECBM tool, currently under discussion by the EU Council, which is aimed at facilitating the resolution of cross-border obstacles along Europe’s borders.
This practical guide, published by the secretariat of the Sahel and West Africa Club, has been produced with assistance from the MOT. It offers many insights on the legislative and financial levers for developing cross-border initiatives on resilience to climate change in West Africa.
