Franco-German cooperation
Wed, April 22, 2020 at 5:15 p.m.
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The Eurodistrict Region Freiburg – Center et Sud Alsace has a new legal form. 1.2 million people could benefit from projects that are made possible.
The Prefect of the French Grand Est Region, Josiane Chevalier, has now officially approved the Eurodistrict Region Freiburg – Center et Sud Alsace as the new European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC). This is the result of a press release from the district of Emmendingen. Accordingly, with this European legal form, the Eurodistrict, which has only existed as a cooperation since July 2006, can be restructured and provided with financial and human resources – with the aim of cross-border projects in the areas of mobility, labor market, student and citizen encounters, sports and culture, health care, Implement energy and tourism for people in the region.
The Eurodistrict Region Freiburg – Center et Sud Alsace will have an office in the new French-German cultural center Art’Rhena of the Communauté de Communes Pays Rhin-Brisach on the Rhine island near Breisach. From the middle of the year, hiring staff is planned for this.
1.2 million people live in 5200 square kilometers in the Eurodistrict
The area of the Eurodistrict covers from Sélestat to Mulhouse on the French side and the Freiburg region on the German around 5200 square kilometers with 344 municipalities “in the heart of Europe”, as the communication says. 1.2 million people live here, half each on both sides of the Rhine. The European legal form as an EGTC also makes it possible to accept the two departments and the Grand Est region as members on the French side.
The local authorities involved drew up and adopted the statutes and cooperation agreement before they were submitted to the Freiburg Regional Council and then to the Prefecture of the Grand Est Region for validation. The approval now enables a more intensive type of cross-border cooperation, the benefits of which have largely been proven in times of the health crisis, the communication said. The following regional authorities are involved: the city of Freiburg and the districts of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald and Emmendingen as well as the Pôle d’équilibre territorial et rural (PETR) Sélestat-Alsace Centrale, the PETR du Pays Rhin-Vignoble-Grand Ballon, the Communauté d’agglomération Colmar Agglomeration, the Communauté d’agglomeration Mulhouse Alsace Agglomeration, the Département du Haut-Rhin, the Département du Bas-Rhin and the Région Grand Est.
Hanno Hurth, District Administrator of the Emmendingen District and President of the Eurodistrict, thanked “everyone involved for their support on the way to the new European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation”. With this new start for the Eurodistrict, Franco-German cooperation for citizens, associations and institutions should be intensified. Due to the completed territorial reform in France, the expiry of the Interreg funding period and the strengthening of the Eurodistrict through the Aachen Treaty, it was time to “make our Eurodistrict sustainable and more effective”. The Corona crisis currently shows clearly “how intensively we are dependent on each other in the border area and that we can also support each other”.
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