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What is the cross-border territorial vision for Greater Geneva?
November 2023
In 2022, the Metropolitan Pole of the French Genevois, along with several of its partners in the Greater Geneva area, committed to developing a cross-border territorial vision.
The aim of this process was to share and define the development of the cross-border territory up to 2050, and to plan long-term actions to meet challenges. To achieve this, eight citizen workshops were organized in spring 2023. The aim of this consultation between elected representatives, technicians and civil society was to devise a shared definition of ecological transition adapted to the territory, and to form a common basis for all planning documents in the Greater Geneva area.
A mixed assessment
The first sessions of 2023 left the elected representatives of the French Genevois area feeling dissatisfied. There was little political involvement on the part of the Swiss partners, and a lack of consideration for the specificities and realities of the French territories. The French Genevois was presented as a place of anarchic urbanization or as a place of local recreation for the inhabitants of the agglomeration's center, without any real exploration of local living conditions.
A process to be consolidated
The next stage in the process should allow for the establishment of a territorial balance between Switzerland and France:
- How can ecological transition objectives be met in the face of Geneva's development model, which exports the negative externalities of its development to "neighbouring France" and protects its city center from cars and pollution?
- Will social disparities increase and services to the population become increasingly unbalanced?
The Canton of Geneva is still far from housing all its employees. In the area of the French Genevois, this is reflected in a demographic explosion that requires not only housing construction, but also the continuous upgrading of facilities and services.
The elected representatives of the French Genevois would like to see the necessary time taken for political appropriation, at all levels of the territory, from Greater Geneva to the communes, via the Pôle métropolitain and the intercommunalités. The establishment of "agglomeration funds" and the financing of mobility infrastructure operations should also be part of the solution.
For more information:
- www.grand-geneve.org/vision-territoriale-transfrontaliere/
- Read the editorial by MOT President Christian Dupessey
- Our article on Greater Geneva: "What is the French response to high living costs and real estate pressures?"
