Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis

Countries: Belgium , France
Regions concerned: France – Nord department (Lille metropole area)
Belgium – Wallonia: Arrondissements Mouscron, Ath, Tournai - West Flanders: Arrondissements Kortrijk, Tielt, Roeselare, Ieper.

Situated between France, and the Belgian regions of Wallonia and Flanders, the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis covers an area of 3500 km2 with around two million inhabitants. It has developed over the last two centuries in a remarkable continuity on either side of the border. Local cross-border mobility is a long-established fixture here.

Its size, its facilities, its position at the centre of the Paris-London-Brussels triangle and its sophisticated cross-border configuration place it among the most important cross-border metropolitan centres in Europe.

Its particularity resides in the cross-border urban intermeshing of part of its territory and in the large volume of local cross-border flows of all kinds (work, study, commercial, social, cultural, healthcare-related, family).

The establishment of an EGCT for the Eurometropolis in 2008 (the first EGCT created in Europe) has enabled it to give structure to cooperation and to develop it in a stable and sustained manner.