From Rhineland-Palatinate to Wallonia, via Luxembourg, Saarland and Lorraine: the Greater Region, born in 1969, promised a vision of cross-border projects to promote the economic, social and cultural fabric of the area. But what has happened to these plans since the arrival of covid?
Under the Saarland mandate (2019-2020), around 100 meetings organised within 18 working groups, observatories or coordination committees, not counting the sub-groups, for about 80 "actions" set up, ranging from the creation of thematic maps to the collection and analysis of health data. France is now in the middle of its mandate as president of the Grande Région, which runs from 2021 to 2022.
Almost weekly meetings
"Obviously, we talk a lot about covid," acknowledges (DP), Luxembourg's minister for the Greater Region for the past eight years. "Perhaps we communicate less to the outside world, but we have done a lot more work in the last two years," she says. "The Grande Région has never worked so well”. Weekly meetings for instance, were held to discuss and coordinate response to the health crisis. There were exchanges on the number of cases, incidence rates, border closures at the beginning, the measures... "We are working on concrete things to manage this crisis together,” Cahen says.
Some things are working "less well, such as contact tracing or the difficulties of knowing how many people are vaccinated on one side of the border or the other". Others work better, such as transferring patients when hospitals were full or waiving travel restrictions for border residents. The crisis has also exacerbated needs such as "the lack of health care staff. We are working together to see how to strengthen training".
At the same time, "there have been a great many meetings on other subjects", the minister said. She mentions the desire to create a "European digital innovation hub", the aim being to "get together" at the level of the Greater Region to help companies in their digitalisation. There are also discussions on green hydrogen, the desire for a cross-border platform for local supply, Esch2022 and a reflection on a health data observatory.
The Grande Région has never worked as well as it does today.
On the mobility side, "we had decided on an additional envelope of €110 million on top of the €120 million granted in 2018 to improve sustainable transport, particularly in rail. We are going to build a maintenance centre in the Metz metropolis, continue to build park and ride facilities." She also mentioned free public transport five kilometres across the borders in France, "being put in place", without a precise date.
The minister expects a lot from the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union. "Often, border areas are the forgotten ones, we look at things from a national perspective. This can help to tell Europe how we operate.”
Mobility moves slowly
"Clément Beaune [French secretary of state for European affairs] sent me a message saying that he was extremely attentive to cross-border issues and that he encouraged us to intensify our projects, because this made sense during the French presidency," confides the president of the Grand Est Region, Jean Rottner. He calculates a budget of 200,000 euros for the Greater Region in 2020.
For the next few years, he sees several priorities: "Accelerate the transition. We are talking about industrial and digital sovereignty, conducting reflections on the changes in the automotive sector, and working on intelligent specialisation strategies around materials. The second is "the protection of the environment". Just like that of citizens and health. And "to better connect our citizens to this notion of a common living space: culture, sport, tangible and intangible heritage".
The railways, the roads, that takes time.
What about mobility, which is always complicated for French border workers, whether they take the motorway or the trains? "The railways and roads take time. I can understand the inconveniences, but what we said, we do, and we are in line with the announced deadlines." Rottner confirms that a train will run every 7.5 minutes between Thionville and Luxembourg during rush hour by 2028. And that the A31 bis route, to relieve congestion on the main axis, is making progress. "The study and administrative stages are being passed one after the other. There is still a choice of route on the northern part. We can't promise people that it will happen tomorrow. Why not extend free transport further than what has been planned with Luxembourg, for example for the train to Thionville? "The economic model is not the same, I have a much heavier rail load and I do not have the same latitude as [Luxembourg transport minister] François Bausch (déi Gréng), who is a minister."
On the labour force transferring to Luxembourg, especially in the health sector, "it's obvious, but I'm not complaining about it. We will increase our quota of trained people. Some will go to Luxembourg, others will stay in France. But those who go to the Grand Duchy will continue to sleep and consume here.” He also finds the proposal of two days of teleworking per week "interesting".
Cooperation has intensified and accelerated.
A direct line between Saarbrücken and Luxembourg
On the German side, the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland are also part of the Greater Region. The minister for European affairs of the latter, Peter Strobel, believes that "cooperation has intensified and accelerated" with the crisis. He mentions a future deepening of cooperation between the countries in the field of health. With Luxembourg, a joint agreement for cross-border emergency aid, similar to the one the grand duchy has already concluded with Rhineland-Palatinate, is being prepared. Many projects also concern France, with which Saarland shares a larger border, such as a partnership agreement with Sciences Po Paris.
In terms of railways, Saarland is studying a direct link between Saarbrücken and Luxembourg. Today, passsengers have to travel via Trier or Metz. The German region is also working on a cross-border road safety programme built on a database specific to the Greater Region.
"I am pleased that a resolution was adopted in the European Affairs Committee of the National Assembly on 19 January 2022, which aims to increase teleworking and to consider a status for cross-border teleworkers at European level," adds Strobel. Will Germany align with Belgium and France on the 34 days of teleworking? "In our system, it is the federal level that decides, but we are open" to an increase, he says.
In Belgium, the Minister-President of Wallonia did not respond to requests from Delano’s sister publication, Paperjam.
The next Paperjam magazine will devote its Enjeux dossier to the Greater Region, its assets and its future.