La Grande Région, région transfrontalière européenne

La Grande Région, région transfrontalière européenne

Border Region
France, Belgique, Luxembourg, Allemagne, Grande Région
Language(s)
Français
Anglais
Type
Note on a scientific paper, a conference paper, etc.
Main Category
Regional Development – Sustainability
Employment – Education – Economy
Governance – Power – Cooperation
Introduction

There are two sometimes contradictory dimensions to cross-border cooperation in the Greater Region: a symbolic dimension and a functional dimension.

Summary

This article details the process of the formation of the Greater Region as a specific space for cross-border cooperation in Western Europe. The author recounts the history and background to this cooperation and presents the different regions making up the cross-border territory. He then explains its specific socio-economic features through the themes of cross-border working and labour immigration. Finally, he details several cooperation projects initiated, including the cross-border polycentric metropolitan region (RMPT) project. This last example is emblematic of the difficulties involved in future cooperation in this territory.

Content

The author presents and qualifies cross-border cooperation in the Greater Region through the historic context of its emergence and provides an inventory of cross-border issues and significant cooperation projects. He concludes, without much enthusiasm, on the main obstacles to the positive development of this cooperation.

Cross-border cooperation in Europe, a dynamic encouraged by globalisation and the integration of the European market, was facilitated by the Madrid Convention of 1990. In the Greater Region, the tradition is linked to the economic solidarity that grew up at time of the decline of the iron and steel industry. Cooperation started to develop at institutional level in the 1990s with the introduction of a cross-border governance system (Greater Region summit and Regional Commission).

The author's presentation of the different constituent regions emphasises the wide diversity of the recent economic trajectories in the Greater Region. Currently, it is the polarisation around the central pole of Luxembourg that dominates and marks the orientation given to cross-border projects. The author illustrates this with a review of some of the cooperation projects: the European Development Pole (PED), the Cité des Sciences in Esch sur Alzette, the QuattroPoles and ToniCités networks, the development of cross-border transport arteries and intermodal nodes, the LuxLorSan healthcare project, cultural policy in particular the designation of Luxembourg as European Capital of Culture in 2007.

The author concludes his overview of the dynamics of cooperation with the example of the cross-border polycentric metropolitan region (RMPT). This example reinforces his argument that cooperation in the Greater Region is more institutional than functional.

Conclusions

The author presents a rather negative vision of cooperation in the Greater Region. So far, the dynamics of cooperation in the Greater Region have mainly been resulted from the commitments and initiatives of the central pole, Luxembourg. At the level of the Greater Region as a whole, this polarisation comes in addition to several other obstacles: the lack of a common cultural identity, the paucity of active competencies really entrusted to the cross-border institutions, the slow pace of implementation of the projects, the language-related limitations, etc.

The author defends the idea that an existing organisation like the RMPT could simplify cooperation. Nevertheless, this structure which results from the multipolar nature of the Territory of the Greater Region does not involve the different enough in concrete projects and actions to be conducted within the territory. The actual influence of the Greater Region is limited to the setting up of European projects with certain actors and politicians. A genuine Greater Region dynamic could still be created via a more balanced participation between the different components of the Greater Region.

Key Messages

The recent history of cooperation in the Greater Region shows that there is a gap between the general ambition for balanced cooperation in the Greater Region and the functional reality of that cooperation. The metropolitan polarisation around Luxembourg is an inevitable dynamic that will need to be accepted if cooperation is not to be confined to a symbol, that of a European region at peace.

Lead

Camilo Pereira Carneiro Filho

Author of the entry
Sylvain
MARBEHANT
Links

https://journals.openedition.org/confins/7908#tocto2n3

Keywords
cross-border cooperation
Contact Person(s)
Date of creation
2020
Publié dans
Confins, numéro 16
Identifier

https://doi.org/10.4000/confins.7908