News

Two Franco-German "Planspiele" devoted to border regions

• In the Upper Rhine region, the work of the Planspiel is focused on the “design of a cross-border multi-site hub for businesses”. The aim is to draw on integrated development of the territory to strengthen the economic attractiveness of the border region and take advantage of the Upper Rhine’s specific development potential. Its authorised representative is the Grand Est Region. Two project groups have been set up: a “multi-site business hub” group and an “economy” group.
  
  
• In the Greater Region, the work took place on 7-8 September and 4-5 October in the SaarMoselle Eurodistrict. It focused on “the development of an integrated cross-border conurbation”. The aim was to devise a process to enable the drawing-up of a cross-border coordination strategy for the conurbation, which, although it has been structured as an EGTC since 2010, currently does not have any such strategy. Its authorised representative is the Saarbrücken Regionalverband. Three project groups have been set up around the three predefined priorities: a “conurbation concept” group; a “commerce” group; and a “mobility and territorial development” group. The MOT has provided an external contribution to the former two and was an observer at the SaarMoselle Planspiel.

The two pilot projects are structured around a common schedule and timeframe, which ensures the comparability of their findings and makes possible their mirroring. More info

"Towards the setting-up of a spatial observation system for Germany and its neighbouring regions"

On 14 September, the MOT presented “France’s activities in the area of cross-border observation” at the final conference of the MORO spatial planning demonstration project “Towards the setting-up of a spatial observation system for Germany and its neighbouring regions” organised by the BBSR. The recommendations of this project are as follows: to create a cross-border database on Germany’s borders; to create an app to allow the data to be viewed; and to establish this system of cross-border observation at the federal level. An ambitious and inspiring programme for French players involved in spatial observation! More info

* "Demonstration Projects of Spatial Planning" (MORO) conducted by the BBR/BBSR (German Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning).
** The "Planspiel" is a kind of role play that uses "flash mob" methods to involve a large number of players around two sessions each lasting two days.