Cross-border issues challenges for the “Pact for the Sambre-Avesnois-Thiérache territory”

March 2024

On 12 March, the MOT visited the sub-prefecture of Vervins, in the Aisne department, for a meeting on the cross-border issues facing the "Pact for the Sambre-Avesnois-Thiérache territory", attended by the SGAR, the Hauts-de-France region, the sub-prefectures of Avesnes-sur-Helpe and Vervins, the Aisne and Nord departments and the territory's EPCIs (public establishments of intercommunal cooperation).

Bordering Belgium and straddling two Hauts-de-France departments, the Sambre-Avesnois–Thiérache territory, home to 305,000 people, is facing major socio-economic difficulties. To respond to these challenges, a “Pact for the success of the Sambre-Avesnois–Thiérache” was signed on 7 November 2018. This pact was extended in 2021 for a period of three years and identifies, in its second version, “cross-border reflexes” for each of its areas of work.

The MOT has been able to share an inventory of the territory‘s Franco-Belgian cross-border cooperation on the basis of the support it has provided to the Maubeuge – Val de Sambre Conurbation Community, the Cœur de l’Avesnois Community of Communes and the Trois Rivières Community of Communes (Hirson).

A “SAT 3 Pact” has been requested by the area’s elected representatives to continue the partnership dynamic that has been set in motion, in which the cross-border nature of the area could be taken into account to a greater extent.