French

The scientific literature on the Euroscepticism of border populations provides contradictory results. This Working Paper takes a spatial approach, to show that the level of support for the EU among border populations should be surveyed on a local scale, and not on a regional scale. Euroscepticism is estimated on the basis of the vote in the European elections of June 2024, in the case of the French region of Grand Est, which borders on 4 countries. Several characteristics of this vote are analysed and related to the socio-economic profile of the territories, using a quantitative geography approach. The results show that there is a border specificity in attitudes towards the EU, in the sense of disengagement (abstention). They also show the variety of border contexts, and, among social groups, a lesser effect of euroscepticism among blue-collar and white-collar workers close to the border.

Depending on location, European border regions can look back on several decades of development in their histories of cooperation. For the Franco-German region this stretches back to the post-World War 2 reconciliation between the two countries, for the German-Polish borderlands to the raising of the Iron Curtain and the reunification of Germany in 1990. It is, however, easy to forget how fragile cross-border relations can still be: something the Covid pandemic, with its limping crisis management, brought powerfully home in the months of and after spring 2020. Poor cross-border communications and inadequate foresight as to their effects exacerbated the problems – old as well as new – caused by re-erecting long disused checkpoints and closing borders. In the present time of polycrisis it is more than ever important to review the Covid era and to analyze the nature and timescale of resilience in cross-border cooperation.

In a project based on empirical surveys and funded by the German-Polish Science Foundation, the four authors of the present policy paper outline a number of development perspectives for the Franco-German and German-Polish borderlands. Differentiating among resilience factors according to their capacity for resistance, adaptation, and transformation, practical recommendations are given for the enhancement of crisis management in both regions. The recommendations cover four areas:

• Communication between decision-makers must be improved and widened at all levels – vertical, horizontal, and diagonal – taking account of varying structures and responsibilities in the face of specific borderland challenges. Informal as well as formal communications are of central importance, not only in times of crisis but permanently. Suitable provision should also be made for cross-border residents.
• Of central importance is the growth of responsible cooperation on the basis of familiarity and trust, political will and mutual transparency. Borderland-specific measures can play a major role here, as does the reinforcement of intercultural competence.
• Key players and structures should be familiar to people across all levels of action: this can provide a basis for common cross-border growth. Suitable measures for improving knowledge transfer, disseminating good practice, and developing scenarios for response to future crises include the exchange of personnel and regular practice sessions. Apart from crises, such measures foster relations on an everyday level. All of this presumes the existence of adequate funding for border regions.
• The EU perspective on borderlands as ‘living laboratories of European integration’ requires that their potential for the development of the EU be taken seriously and vitally enacted. The opportunities offered by a Europe of open frontiers should be actively publicized – also as a means to anticipate and counter any feelings of cultural or national resentment. 

Based on a sample of job advertisements published in the main Luxembourgish daily newspaper (Luxemburger Wort) covering the period 1984-2019, this study describes the development of language skills required on the Luxembourg job market. After a brief presentation of the linguistic situation and the labor market in Luxembourg, the statistical analysis of a sample of some 8,340 job advertisements constitutes the main part of this publication. A qualitative study of a smaller body of job vacancies sheds additional light and a detailed understanding of linguistic needs in a multilingual and international labor market. Both approaches come to the same conclusion. The labor shortage and particularly the lack of people fluent in the "three languages of the country" has led to a segmentation of the labor market.

Over the course of the 20th and 21st century, different forms of cross-border cooperation have emerged and developed within the so-called Greater Region. The France Strategy of the Saarland – announced in 2014 – adds upon these existing efforts, aiming in particular to foster functional multilingualism, and cross-border cooperation in the economic, research, and cultural sphere. In this endeavour, both public and private actors are to be included into the process(es) of implementation. The announcement of the Strategy was met with notable response from the French neighbouring territories. In this context, municipalities serve a double role – on the one hand, they act as a ‚mouthpiece‘ for local interests and needs ‚on the ground‘, on the other hand, they themselves engage in and support cross-border cooperation, and serve as intermediaries for regional guidelines. Based upon quantitative and qualitative research with a focus on the local level, the following policy paper presents central recommendations for action regarding the further direction and implementation of the France Strategy, and more generally cross-border cooperation within the cross-border region of the Saarland and the French département Moselle. The recommendations are divided into five areas, touching upon activities related to the fostering of multilingualism, the support and accompaniment of activities, the fostering of netweks, as well as the further institutionalization of cross-border cooperation within the (trinational) border region.