Borders Forum 2024: A Call for a Cross-Border Deal to Strengthen Europe through border regions

The Borders Forum 2024, organised by the Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière (MOT), took place on 2 and 3 December at the Cité Internationale Universitaire in Paris. The event, held under the high patronage of French President Emmanuel Macron, brought together over 300 participants from border regions across the European Union. The forum aimed at submitting to national and European decision-makers the "Cross-Border Deal", a set of proposals for a stronger Europe across its borders, to encourage taking into account cross-border areas in public policies and resolve the border obstacles affecting the daily lives of nearly 30% of the European population.

This “Deal” is composed of proposals concerning three main axes, citizenship and belonging, public services that connect us, and sharing of our resources and was presented at the conclusion of the event to the participating representatives of national and European institutions.

Numerous experts and professionals involved in cross-border cooperation at different levels brought their contributions and experiences to the discussions during 10 thematic sessions, including MEPs, a former European Commissioner, Ministers, civil servants and a philosopher.

The event also featured an intervention by the Director in charge of European Territorial Cooperation in the European Commission, Slawomir Tokarski, who praised the new Data hub for EU border regions also launched during the event, to tackle the need for the collection of harmonised data on border regions.

Cross-border cooperation remains a fundamental issue for the improvement of EU competitiveness. As the Head of the OECD Governance and Strategic Planning Unit, Maria-Varinia Michalun remarked in her opening speech, the EU experiences a loss of 3% of GDP each year because of cross-border obstacles, while removing such barriers could create 3 million new jobs.