News
"Cross-border living areas" experiment: initial courses of action developed with local players
January 2024
For almost a year, the MOT, supported by sixteen partners, has been conducting a "cross-border living areas" experiment on five pilot sites on the French borders: PAMINA Eurodistrict (French-German border), the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis (French-Belgian border), Nord Lorrain - Luxembourg (French-Luxembourg border), Southern Alps - Riviera (French-Italian-Monegasque border) and Franco-Vaud-Geneva conurbation (French-Swiss border)
The first phase of this experiment identified and represented cross-border living areas at several levels for each pilot site, while defining issues and avenues for action on topics considered priorities by the sites, such as health, mobility, access to public services, and employment and training.
On the basis of these initial discussions, the MOT team worked on a common conceptualisation of cross-border living areas and the issues that characterise them. This has made it possible to highlight the difficulties faced by cross-border territories: the daily lives of the inhabitants of these territories are affected, particularly in terms of fair access to public services, health and mobility.
The unique situation of cross-border living areas can also exacerbate certain territorial imbalances, calling for attention and an appropriate response from players at all levels.
In order to respond to these challenges, a dozen or so proposals for action were selected from those formulated during the first phase of the experiment, and were investigated by the MOT in order to translate them into operational terms. A second series of local brainstorming sessions, held in autumn 2023/winter 2024, tested the relevance and feasibility of these proposals with local technical and political players at the five pilot sites.
Following these "territorial brainstormings", which provided an opportunity to exchange views with local players, the MOT will now consult with national players, and then draw up a final report to be published in the first half of 2024.
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