Saarland sees itself as a bridge between Germany and France. Due to historical developments, there is already a great deal of expertise on France, which is to be expanded further.
The France Strategy is designed as a comprehensive and civil society project. In close cooperation with Lorraine, it pursues an internal strategy (strengthening French competence within the country) and an external and communication strategy (marketing Saarland’s French competence externally, i.e. to France and Germany). Even if French competence is the focal point, the France Strategy is essentially a multilingual strategy.
The France Strategy has so far been complemented by two “Feuille de route” (roadmaps), which list milestones.
Saarland’s France Strategy will be discussed in the light of different professional contexts and with the consideration of large regional, national, European and global processes. The contributions are based on a public lecture series in which cross-border realities of life, measures, cooperation and multilingualism in the border region were discussed. The German-French cooperation and the importance of the France Strategy in various fields of action will be discussed, as well as the existing opportunities and challenges, but also possible contributions from academics and society to use the potentials of the border region will be examined from different scientific perspectives.
