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"L'Europe par les territoires", a publication by the FNAU – focus on the cross-border dimension
May 2019
The latest publication by the French Network of Urban Planning Agencies (FNAU), entitled "L'Europe par les territoires" (“Europe by its territories”) feeds into the debate about Europe and provides different views on the issues relating to cohesion policy and the way in which cities and territories have appropriated the European ideal and the tools of this policy. The MOT contributed to it and several cross-border territories are showcased in it.
In the first part, “The territories – vectors of European cohesion”, Serge Morvan, General Commissioner for Territorial Equality, sets out the five major European territorial issues, including the fifth one, “The marginalisation of some cross-border areas”. In it, Jean Peyrony, the MOT’s Director-General, highlights “The cross-border dimension in European cohesion policy”.
A whole section is devoted to cross-border territories, with a second article by Jean Peyrony: “Cross-border territories – Europe’s laboratories”. The following examples are then set forth:
- Lille, a European cross-border metropolis
- The development of the Dunkirk area cannot be envisaged without cross-border cooperation
- The Atlantic and Pyrenees urban planning agency – a cross-border ambition
- The Grand Est Region: seven cross-border situations, three levels of issues
- The Strasbourg Eurometropolis – European by culture, cross-border by geography
- Basel-Mulhouse-Fribourg – trinational cooperation to blur the borders
- Greater Luxembourg or the challenge of cross-border metropolisation.
This part concludes with a "plea for cross-border urban planning agencies”.
The other sections are devoted to creating networks, citizenship in Europe and European cities.
