Results of the 2024 Borders Forum: a ‘cross-border deal’ for our cross-border regions?
With Gabrielle Halpern, a philosopher and specialist in the concept of hybridisation, whose work examines the intellectual, social and political boundaries that shape our societies, the first two panel discussions provided an opportunity to debate these issues with high-level speakers: how can we rebuild trust to foster European and cross-border citizenship and move towards a “cross-border people” by 2050? What form of “sovereignty” should be shared across borders? What form of solidarity should exist between cross-border territories, and how might we rethink public policy?
Then, on 3 December, participants split into ten thematic workshops to discuss concrete proposals. The aim: to present national and European decision-makers with a “Cross-border deal” to ensure that cross-border living areas are better taken into account in public policy, to resolve the “bottlenecks” at borders that affect the daily lives of nearly 30% of the European population, and to restore confidence in Europe! The results were presented in a concluding session to representatives of national and European institutions.
Read our press release
Download the “Cross-border deal” produced following the ten workshops
The replay is now available!
The event was attended by high-profile speakers, including:
- Gabrielle Halpern, philosopher and expert on the concept of hybridisation,
- Maria-Varinia Michalun, Head of the Governance and Planning Unit at the OECD
- Tibor Navracsics, Minister for Public Administration and Regional Development, former European Commissioner (Hungary)
- Paco Boya, Secretary-General for Demographic Challenges at the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenges (Spain)
- Juliane Seifert, State Secretary, Federal Ministry of the Interior and Regional Development (Germany)
- Sandro Gozi, Member of the European Parliament
- Karl-Heinz Lambertz, former Minister-President of the German-speaking Community of Belgium, President of the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR)
- Martie-Antoinette Maupertuis, President of the Corsican Assembly
- And of course MOT’s president, Christian Dupessey, Mayor of Annemasse, President of the French Genevois Metropolitan Area
More info on the event’s page.
Our thanks to all the participants who turned out in such large numbers, all the speakers and our partners:
La Commission européenne
Le Programme ESPON
Le Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères
Le Centre national de la fonction publique territoriale (CNFPT)
Borders in Globalization (University of Victoria)
Trans-Missions
Photo : MOT / Emilie Gomez
