News
The French Geneva Area turns into a Pole Metropolitain
May 2017
In order to increase its influence in the development of the Greater Geneva cross-border territory, on 1 May 2017 the French Geneva Region Cooperation Assembly (ARC), the French side of the Local Grouping of Cross-Border Cooperation, became the French Geneva Area Pôle Metropolitain.
This Pole Metropolitain, a joint association bringing together intermunicipal councils with the ability to raise taxes, will provide the structure for a territory that comprises more than 400,000 inhabitants and 8 intermunicipal councils.
This change in legal status reflects a desire to reinforce the capacity to take action of the French Geneva Area's elected representatives in three key domains: transport, territorial development and the energy transition, and economic development.
Jean Denais, already Mayor of Thonon-les-Bains and elected President of the Pôle Metropolitain on 5 May, affirmed the ambition of the newly-created structure: "A strong French Geneva Area for a strong Greater Geneva", thereby emphasising the importance of joint cross-border work in order "to do together what we cannot do alone".
