The contribution represents the entire pallet of bodies of cross-border cooperation that have developed along the borders of the French continent that borders eight adjacent states, and potentially their regional subdivisions. There are national bodies, i.e. associations (everywhere), bodies under French law ("sociétés d’économie mixte locale" [local mixed-economic companies] and European districts) and bodies under foreign law. Subsequently, supranational bodies are present (GÖZ, EVTZ, VEZ) that owe their success to legal harmonisation. However, other bodies that resulted from the early phase of cross-border cooperation (work groups) are receding.
The thematic document highlights various aspects of cross-border spatial development based on the following central themes: spatial planning instruments, promotion of cross-border cooperation, health care, transport infrastructures and services, territorial integration through the combination of transport modes and creation of European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation. The contributions pertain to different cross-border spaces in Europe.
Border areas are often posited as “laboratories of European integration.” But what is the significance of the notion of the cross-border region beyond such discourses and symbols? By defining a region as a construct which is at once the construction of an identity, a territory, and an institution which is perpetuated over time, this text identifies and questions the particularities of this process within the cross-border context. The study is based on a discourse analysis, the operational use of the concepts of cross-border territoriality, and the supraregional institution. The legal framework for cooperation, provided by the EGTC (The European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation) in its role as the judicial instrument of the EU, is analyzed in detail.
