Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière (MOT)

The MOT was set up in 1997 on the initiative of the DATAR (Délégation interministériel à l’aménagement du territoire et à l’attractivége régionale = Interministerial Agency for Spatial Planning and Regional Attractiveness) with the support of the Caisse des dépôts and the Ministry of Infrastructure. It brings together ministries and local authorities that work with cross-border cooperation issues. The work of the MOT initially focused on five pilot regions: the three Eurodistricts in Alsace (Saint-Louis / Basel, Mulhouse-Colmar-Freiburg in Breisgau and Strasbourg / Kehl), Lille Métropôle, the Métropôle Côte d’Azur (Menton-Ventimiglia), the Espace franco-genevois and the urban area of Bayonne-San Sebastian. Today, a large number of national and international members and partners are part of the network.

The MOT has the following tasks:

• Interest representation of cross-border areas
• Support of the sponsors
• Networking the participants and experiences

The MOT takes into account the cross-border challenges (formulating proposed regulatory and legislative changes, inclusion of cross-border issues and matters in European policies), supports technical engineering for cross-border areas (through studies, expertise and projects) and provides a platform for networking as well as a center for resources. Under the “Resources” category on the MOT website, there is, among other things, a brief overview of cross-border projects and European programs.

At a European level, the MOT is active in various areas: It takes a position on current political trends, organizes European projects, has several partnerships at the European level, and actively participates in the Government Working Group on Innovative Solutions for Cross-Border Obstacles and the Cross-Border Strategic Observation Committee.

Throughout the year, the MOT organizes various events on cross-border issues and also participates in these events. To celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2017, MOT organized a conference in Brussels entitled “Construire les territoires trans-frontaliers: l’Europe pour les citoyens.”

On its website, under the section “Publications et études,” the MOT has collected many comprehensive materials, such as the newsletter “L’actualité frontalière,” reports, practical guides and methodological studies, the atlas of cross-border cooperation, seminar files (e.g. on the MOT Regional Committee Conference “Construire les territoires transfrontaliers : l'Europe pour les citoyens”), studies and information on the service “bon-à-tirer” (BAT).