Territory of the Basque Eurocity

Countries: France , Spain
Regions concerned: Nouvelle Aquitaine Region, Department of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques (France); Autonomous Community of the Basque Country

The territory of the Basque Eurocity stretches from Bayonne to San Sebastián along 50 km of the Atlantic facade of the Pyrenees, on either side of the Bidasoa river, whose mouth marks the French-Spanish border.

This cross-border conurbation represents a real urban corridor and is located on one of the main road links between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of Europe. This situation of obligatory crossing point is accompanied by a high volume of cross-border flows, observable at different scales (from the local to the trans-continental) and undertaken for varied purposes (cross-border workers, tourists, healthcare patients, students, haulage drivers) together numbering 24,000 vehicles per day.

This attractive cross-border region, located between the mountains and the sea, is also a territory under pressure, both in terms of saturation of transport infrastructure and of land and property. Cross-border cooperation in this territory takes place in a context of voluntarism, and on the basis of the rich multi-faceted identity of the region, influenced by three different cultures (Spanish, French and Basque).

The Basque Eurocity has drafted an operational strategic plan for the 2014-2020 period, allowing the territory to define priority projects in order to ease their financing by the European Union. The priorities selected concerned: the mobility between Bayonne and San Sebastian, the environment and in particular water quality, culture and tourism in the perspective of the Donostia 2016 year, infrastructure, language policy, higher education and finally research and technological development.