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A cross-border component in the ‘4D’ bill

The text includes a cross-border component (art. 57, 58 & 59 of the bill) which provides for: consideration of cross-border health cooperation schemes in French regional health authorities’ regional health plans; consultation of bordering foreign local and regional authorities in drawing up ‘SRADDET’ sustainable development and planning schemes; and the participation of said authorities and their groupings in the capital of local public corporations. This last measure is intended to support the development of “public services of common cross-border interest”.

The MOT is pleased to see these issues being considered at this stage of the bill’s drafting, and with the work accomplished with members, the ministerial offices concerned and the MPs Sylvain Waserman and Christophe Arend in conveying feedback on obstacles. The MOT wishes to continue defending cross-border interests during the course of the parliamentary process to follow, and invites contributions from the MOT network on the obstacles still to be overcome.

In particular, the MOT is making the case for the establishment of a national cross-border coordination point, in order to process feedback on obstacles on each border – following the example of the work of the Franco-German Cross-Border Cooperation Committee (CCT) – via legislation or national policies, while liaising with the relevant ministries. Cross-border stakeholders have long been advocating for the need for such a facility*.

Read the éditorial by Sylvain Waserman, Member of Parliament for the Bas-Rhin, Vice-President of the French National Assembly, and Christophe Arend, Member of Parliament for Moselle

^{* More info in Jean Peyrony’s article “Les principaux enjeux de la cooperation transfrontalière”, published in “Réalités Industrielles : Une série des Annales des Mines” in August 2020.}

Photo : Shutterstock / Alexander Lukatskiy