Lille Métropole Local Action Plan - Urbact

Lille Métropole Local Action Plan
© V. Le Cigne, Lille Métropole

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 2
1) The Local Support Group and its involvement in the elaboration of the Local Action Plan
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 4
2) Expectations and achieved results……………………………………………………………………………….. 5
I. Content of the local action plan……………………………………………………………………………. 6
1) « Leadership » issues…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6
a. Starting situation……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6
b. Link with regional, national, and European levels…………………………………………………… 12
c. Good practices experimented by the cross-border conurbation…………………………….. 13
d. Problems to be solved…………………………….. ……………………………………………………………..15
e. Solutions to be developed……………………………………………………………………………………… 17
f. Recommendations at national and European levels………………………..………………………17
2) Community issues……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 17
a. Starting situation……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 17
b. Good practices experimented by the cross-border conurbation……………………………. 18
c. Problems to be solved……………………………………………………………………………………………. 19
d. Solutions to be developed……………………………………………………………………………………… 19
e. Recommendations at national and European levels………………………………………………. 20
II. The activities programme…………………………………………………………………………………… 20
III. Network and communication activities – Perspectives……………………………………….. 25
1) Contacts with regional, national and European administrations………………………………… 25
2) Contacts with other cross-border conurbations…………………………………………………………. 26
3) Description of activities and documents…………………………………………………………………….. 27
ORGANIZATION SCHEME………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 30
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INTRODUCTION
The “EGTC” URBACT project (Expertising Governance for Transfrontier Conurbations) is
a European working group co-financed by the URBACT II programme (2007-2013). This
programme aims to encourage the sharing of experiences between European cities and to
disseminate knowledge on sustainable urban development throughout Europe.
The project is led by Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière (MOT); it involves six crossborder
conurbations in Europe: Lille Metropole for the Eurometropole Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai
(F/BE), Basel for the Trinational Eurodistrict Basel (F/DE/CH), Esztergom for the Ister-Granum
EGTC (HU/SK), Chaves for the conurbation Chaves-Verin (ES/PT), Slubice for the Frankfurt
(Oder)-Slubice conurbation (DE/PL), and Strasbourg for the Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau
(F/DE).
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The partners aimed to:
- improve their governance models by exchanging experiences, with the support of
the Lead Expert,
- capitalize best practices, spread models of governance throughout Europe and,
- promote cross-border agglomerations at national and European levels.
The new opportunities provided by the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation,
the European instrument (EC Regulation 1082/2006), whose use is still under
experimentation, constituted an interesting case study. The first two European Groupings of
Territorial Cooperation in Europe were involved in the “EGTC” URBACT project and an EGTC
was established during the project.
By “cross-border governance”, the project partners have agreed to deal with the
following two major themes:
- How can public leaders and cross-border organizations frame and implement
efficient policies (“Leadership” issues)?
The way a cross-border conurbation is managed on a technical, political, legal, as well as
financial point of view. The main question resulting from this issue is the one of designing
and implementing cross-border urban strategies and concrete projects by involving all
relevant public stakeholders on both sides of border.
- How can the involvement of the civil society guarantee the legitimacy of cross-border
agglomeration policies (“Community” issues)?
The way a cross-border conurbation earns its legitimacy to intervene above national
borders, through the development of mobilizing projects aimed at citizens, through the
development of services dedicated to the citizens, through the emergence of cross-border
Medias which enable a dialogue with the inhabitants, and through the creation of
participative democracy mechanisms. The main question related to this issue is the one of
building efficient and legitimate partnerships able to address cross-border territorial
cohesion issues.
In order to make sure that the URBACT projects lead to concrete and realistic outcomes, the
URBACT II programme requires specific results from the URBACT project partners:
• Each partner realizes a Local Action Plan, which identifies the measures and actions
which will be implemented in order to improve the running policies. It aims to
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provide pragmatic, precise solutions based on the results of the transnational
exchanges. It is jointly produced with the Local Support Group (link) on the local level
and with all the project partners on a transnational level.
• All URBACT project partners commit to establishing and leading an URBACT Local
Support Group to make sure that exchanges have an impact on local practices and
policies. This group assembles the main interested parties and local actors concerned
by the project topic and the issues the partner is looking to resolve; the groups
include local elected officials, representatives of various local administrative
departments, representatives of residents/users, etc.
URBACT Local Support Groups contribute to implementing transnational activities
(production/approval of case studies, for example) and producing the Local Action
Plan that each partner has to produce as the result of participation in the URBACT II
programme.
For more information: http://urbact.eu
1) The local Support group and its involvement in the
elaboration of the Local Action Plan
- Composition of the Local Support Group :
In this period of first steps for the EGTC (European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation),
the partnership focuses on the launching of the structure. It had been decided that the
technical support group of the EGTC would bring together technical representatives of the
14 members of the EGTC. In fact no other group could have the legitimacy of defining a
strategy.
Normaly they had to meet once a month in order to work on the administrative and
technical aspects, and to define the short and medium term strategy. As Lille Métropole
Communauté Urbaine is one of the 14 members of the EGTC, and is the partner of the
URBACT-EGTC network, it had to « translate » the technical group’s strategy into the local
action plan, and on the other hand make sure that the technical group was aware of the
development of that plan.
- Involvement in the elaboration of the Local Action Plan :
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On January 26 th 2009, Lille Métropole asked the Lead Expert of the EGTC URBACT II
project, Christian LAMOUR, his help in order to think about the URBACT EGTC project and to
give a new impulse to the writing of the LAP (Local Action Plan). During a meeting with all
the members of the Local Support Group it had been decided that, because of the very
recent creation of the EGTC Lille-Kortrijk-Tounai and the size of Lille Métropole -which slows
down the concret actions-, the LAP would be focused on general orientations which could
be taken by the Eurometropole.
2) Expectations and achieved results
The territory of Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai was involved in the EGTC project through Lille
Métropole, in order to exchange with other leading crossborder territories. The key
motivation, mentioned in the declaration of interests (12/02/2008), was the creation of the
EGTC « Eurometropole Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai / Eurometropool Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai », the
first in the EU, in January 2008. Launching the fisrt EGTC is a big challenge and a great
opportunity to exchange with other territories as well.
Lille Métropole, as the main financial contributor, wants to make sure that this new
structure will become successful. Moreover, it was time to set up the operational
organization that will enable effective development of ambitious projects within a multilevel
governance framework. Concerning the URBACT EGTC project, Lille Métropole
expected to discuss the implementation of the EGTC regulation with other cross-border
areas and thus elaborate recommendations for the creation of EGTCs elsewhere in Europe. It
also expects to indentify how the EGTC could liven up the cross-border territory and run
concrete projects, in particular by using Structural Funds.
On the other hand Lille Métropole wanted to highlight its first successes. Being the first
territory in the UE to create an EGTC and to experiment that new tool is also a matter of
communication among the other European Metropolitan areas.
The first results of the project for Lille Métropole were
- A better knowledge of the geography of crossborder
conurbations in Europe.
- A better understanding of the diversity of crossborder
strategies, and hence, a clearer view on its own choices.
- The awareness of the need to define its role into the
EGTC, to define the technical group.
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- The awareness of improving the governance of the Eurometropole (creation of the
Forum…)
- The chance to exchange on methods and tools to improve the governance of the crossborder
conurbation, with professionals, politicians and others, towards various seminars.
I. Content of the local action plan
a. Starting situation
1) « Leadership » issues
History of the cross-border co-operation in the area.
The area has always been a fertile ground for crossborder projects. The INTERREG
fundings supported many projects to solve crossborder issues such as water management,
transportation... A second achievement of those fundings was that their financial attractivity
helped a lot of structures look for partners on the other side of the border.
The different authorities developped their own crossborder strategies with some
partners: the département with the provincies, Lille Métropole with the Belgian
intercommunales through a common association. Since 1991, the French-Belgian
metropolitan project was covered by the Cross-Border Standing Conference of Intermunicipal
Organisation (COPIT). This common tool brought together Lille Métropolis Urban
Community (1.1 million inhabitants) and four Belgian intermunicipal entities (700 000
inhabitants).
In 2002, a global reflection was launched to consider the evolution of COPIT into a
cross-border structure of governance. A French-Belgian Parliamentary Working Group
started trying to identify the main obstacles to effective cross-border cooperation in the Lille
metropolitan area, and more generally on the French-Belgian border. They also intented to
define conditions of experimentation for adapted organisational patterns.
The Eurometropole Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai was officially set up on January 20 th 2008 and the
recruitment of the staff agency started in June 2008.
Why create an EGTC ?
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Before the creation of the EGTC, on many issues the authorities weren’t successful in
reaching all the relevant partners. The main reason was that, on both sides of the border,
the administrative organization was very complex and the roles were not clearly defined.
Moreover, a metropolis could not exist between the large metropolitan areas of north
Western Europe without beeing united. So the priority tasks of the Eurometropole EGTC
are :
• To ensure consultation, dialogue and to encourage political debate, bringing together
all institutions.
• To produce cross-border consistency throughout the whole territory.
• To facilitate, carry and realize projects that
reflect the development strategy worked
out in common.
© Lille Métropole
• To facilate the day-to-day life of the inhabitants of the French-Belgian metropolis
Which territory ?
Located on the French-Belgian border
and on the regional limit between Flanders
and Wallonia in Belgium the Eurométropole is
a major train junction. The territory of the
EGTC encompasses 2 million inhabitants in a
mainly urban area (arbout 575 inh/km²).
There is no real geographical barrier such as a
large river or mountains. In spite of the
administrative division of the territory (partly
reduced by the European construction)
thousands of inhabitants cross the border
everyday to work, study, shop, visit…
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The official Eurométropole border is permeable: as Mr Peugeot (head of the Forum)
recalled during the the URBACT city lab seminar closure (12/02/2010), the stakes cannot be
boiled down to a delimited border. The Eurométropole EGTC keeps that in mind and a lot of
projects go past the official border.
A short description of the organization
(See the apendix: Eurométropole governance)
The Eurométropole Governance at the beginning of the « EGTC » URBACT project
The Eurométropole Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai EGTC is a formal structure and has its own
statutes. All the institutional levels in France and in Belgium are involved in this cross-border
cooperation process. The EGTC brings together the 14 stakeholders of the cross-border
conurbation gathering all competencies:
• On the French side : the State, the Région Nord-Pas-de-Calais, the Département du Nord
and Lille Métropole Communauté Urbaine.
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• On the Belgian side : the federal State, the Flemish Region and Community, the Province
of Western Flanders, the Leiedal intermunicipal association, the WVI intermunicipal
association, the Walloon Region, the French Community of Belgium, the Province of
Hainaut, the IDETA intermunicipal association, the IEG intermunicipal association.
When the Eurométropole joined the URBACT project named « EGTC » there were only the
political organs which are:
The advisory bodies: a conference of the Mayors and Burgomasters
(http://conferenceeurometropole.wordpress.com)
- Which brings together all the Mayors and Burgomasters of the Eurometropole. Its
purpose is to inform the Mayors and the Burgomasters on the works and projects of the
EGTC and facilitate communication between them at the communal level.
- The decision
making organ is
composed of the
assembly and the Board
of the Eurométropole.
The assembly (which is
named by the Conference
of the Mayors and
Burgomasters) elects the
Board, the president, the
3 vice-presidents, votes
the annual budget and
launches the recruitment
of the technical team.
The assembly is composed
of 84 representatives:
- For the French members :
• 32 representatives of Lille Métropole designated by the Community Council.
• 2 representatives of the State designated by the Minister of Interior and by
the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
• 4 representatives of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Region designated by the
Regional Council.
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• 4 representatives of the Département du Nord designated by the General
Council.
- For the Belgian members :
• 15 representatives, localy elected, designated by a joint agreement between
the intermunicipal associations of Leidal and WVI, the municipal district of
Kortrijk, Leper, Roeselare and Tielt.
• 15 representatives, localy elected, designated by a joint agreement between
the municipal district of Mouscron-Comines, Tournai and Ath and by the
municipalities of Lessines, Silly and Enghien and by the Intermunicipalities
Ideta and Ieg.
• 1 French speaking representative and 1 Dutch speaking representative from
the Federal State designated by the Federal Government.
• 4 representatives of the Region and of the Flemish community designated by
the Flemish government.
• 2 representatives of the Walloon Region designated by its government.
• 2 representatives of the French Community of Belgium designated by its
government.
• 1 representative of the Province of Western Flanders designated by the
Députation.
• 1 representative of the Province of Hainaut designated by the Députation.
The assembly is convened by its President at least once a year and can be convened if
at least a quarter of its members wants a meeting. The deliberations are adopted if there
are: the absolute majority of the French members, of the French speaker representatives of
the Belgian members, of the Dutch speaker representatives of the Belgian members.
The board is composed of 32 members:
- For the French members :
• 11 representatives among those of Lille Métropole.
• 1 representative among those of the State.
• 2 representatives among those of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Region.
• 2 representatives among those of the Département du Nord.
- For the Belgian members :
• 4 representatives among those designated by a joint agreement between the
intermunicipal associations of Leidal and WVI, the municipal district of
Kortrijk, Leper, Roeselare and Tielt.
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• 4 representatives among those designated by a joint agreement between the
municipal district of Mouscron-Comines, Tournai and Ath and by the
municipalities of Lessines, Silly and Enghien and by the Intermunicipalities
Ideta and Ieg.
• The French speaker representative and the Dutch speaker representative of
the Federal State.
• 2 representatives among those of the Flemish Region and community.
• 1 representative among those of the Walloon Region.
• 1 representative among those of the French community of Belgium.
• The representative of the Province of Western Flanders.
• The representative of the Province of Hainaut.
The Board decisions are taken unanimously.
Moreover, there was a strong wish to involve socio-economic actors and we will see,
in the part about community and good practices, that the Eurométropole managed to create
« the Forum » in order to answer to this need.
The technical work of the Eurometropole will be ensured by a cross-border agency, which is
an administrative and technical tool. As we will see further, the recruitment of this team is
still in progress, the General Director has been designed the 9 th of April 2010. Waiting for the
general director, a temporary management has been set up.
The EGTC’s Budget.
As it was written in the project sheet on 03/03/2009, the EGTC Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai
has its own budget. In 2008, this first budget reached 989.000 euros, resulting from the
contribution of each 14 partners, and including 245.000 euros for investments. But during
this period, no investments were achieved and the operating expenses were limited (26.824
euros), due to the fact that the officers of the cross border Agency were not in position.
Therefore, the surplus of 963.076 euros has been affected to the budget 2009.
Each partner gives an annual contribution which equals to 50% for France and 50%
for Belgium. For the French partners, the State: 5%, Région: 10%, Département du Nord:
10%, Lille Métropole Communauté Urbaine: 25%. Moreover, the EGTC may apply for loans.
For 2010 the budget will be 1 500 000 euros.
It is clear that at the moment, the actions are just at the stage of the studies. The cost
of the carrying out will have to be discussed in regard to quality, appropriateness,
localization of the project or the action…The objective is to define a budget adapted to the
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eal needs of the Eurométropole which correspond to the ambitions of the EGTC. The
Agency will have to be careful in order to avoid overspending, and the concrete actions must
be based on planning documents in order to show to the European commission that the
cross border cooperation reinforces territorial cohesion… At the moment, a transfer of
competences is not on the agenda.
b. Link with regional, national and European levels.
There are different reasons why a multi-level dialogue is required in cross-border issues in
that area:
- The cross-border issues always involve different actors (at least two). Hence, solving a
problem requires taking the complexity into account.
- Even if not all of the issues to be coped with involve the three territorial components
(France, Wallonia, Flanders), the need to build a common metropolis (based on a
common identity) creates that need for many projects, at least the non territorial ones.
Besides, a large part of the urban area (Lys valley and Tourcoing-Mouscron-Kortrijk)
crosses the three regions.
- There is no symmetry. On the French-Belgian border, such as most of the borders, the
different regulations and organizations often require to take more actors into account.
- Sharing a common territory. The Eurométropole is one territory in almost every « hard »
issue (environment, planning…). There is no major geographical difference between the
different subterritories. Those issues in this territory involve the competences of many
different authorities.
- Dealing with soft issues. The soft issues (such as education, culture, research, tourism…)
involve a lot of different actors in the area.
- This area is a transit territory: large infrastructures cross the territory (train, highway,
water). Some others are planned. For different reasons these infrastructures have to be
taken into account :
• They shape the territory and many projects on a very local scale have to be adapted
to them (e.g. the Lys valley).
• They are an opportunity to catch a part of the traffic (ex : the TGV station Lille
Europe)
• They can help the territory become more competitive.
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But these infrastructures also attract the attention of the regional, national and
European levels. Furthermore, in such a transit territory, preferences are sometimes given to
the large infrastructures at the cost of the local networks. Besides, the local cross-border
networks (Lille-Kortrijk and Lille-Tournai) are often considered as international lines by the
national level even if their scale is clearly local.
c. Good practices experimented by the cross-border conurbation
Franco-Belgian parliamentary working group
The French-Belgian Parliamentary working group was born in 2006 thanks to a very
strong political consensus to improve the cross-border situation, and its work determined
the setting-up of the Eurométropole. It was composed of State parliamentarians (French
and Belgian), regional parliamentarians (Belgian) and a European parliamentarian.
Mr Lamassoure
French members
Spokesperson and
European deputy
Mr De Clerck
Belgian members
Spokesperson and Flemish
deputy
Mr Mauroy Senator Mr Brotcorne Senator
Mr Delnatte Deputy Mme Lahaye-Battheu
Deputy of the House of
Representatives
Mr Roman Deputy Mr Bossuyt Flemish deputy
Mr Vanneste Deputy Mr Crucke
Deputy of the French
community
Mr Vercamer Deputy Mr Delannois Walloon deputy
For the legal issues the aims were:
- Make a census of the various projects and subjects of common cross-border interest.
- Identify the main legal obstacles to effective cross-border cooperation in the Lille
metropolitan area, and more generally on the French-Belgian border.
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- Define conditions of experimentations for adapted organisational patterns.
Seven work themes were chosen:
- Planification and urban planning
- Transports, mobility and telecommunications
- Employment, taxation, profesional training, companies growth
- Water and environment
- Health and social issues
- Education
- Security
The general diagnosis was :
• The metropolis Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai is a very interesting cross-border area: there
is no real geographical barrier, a strong history of cooperation… So the French-
Belgian parliamentary Working Group proposed to focus their investigations on
this territory.
• There were already a lot of exchanges quite concrete but there was a need for a
better cooperation.
• For the cross-border cooperation between France and Belgium, the legal issues
will be one difficulty because the political organization on both sides of the
border is very different… The Working Group insisted on the need to converge
the French and Belgian legal and administrative mechanisms.
In 2007, the final report was delivered, with recommendations concerning:
- The modalities of cross-border projects implementation, including legal convergence on
specific topics.
- The setting-up of an integrated governance pattern immediately applicable to the
development project of Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Metropolitan area, and to the European
scale cross-border metropolis.
Creation of six thematic working groups.
The thematic working groups have been created in order to become places where
shared diagnosis can be made more easily. This will help the elaboration of a strategy,
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propositions of permits, follow-up of the action, and evaluation in a short, medium and long
term.
The six thematic working groups are
Mobility/accessibility
Economic development
Tourism
Services to the population
Territorial Strategy and sustainable
Development
Culture
General assessment of mobility issues,
development of soft transportation modes,
train connections.
Clusters, job forum, companies and workers taxation.
Elaboration of a touristic map, sharing of touristic
offers, tax system for workers and businesses.
Health, higher education, mutualization of existing
facilities.
Sharing of experience regarding wind energy
development and definition of a code of conduct
between the 3 regions, promotion of a « sustainable
Neighbourhood » concept, positioning of the EGTC
within the EU.
Cross-border cultural agenda, sharing of facilities,
organization of big scale events.
Each working group will be composed of 14 members maximum, including 1 group
president and 3 vice presidents. Each working group organizes its own work program.
d. Problems to be solved
Various legal problems have been met during the setting-up of the Eurométropole.
For example, for the publishing in the Official Journal of the European Union, the publication
services did not know where they had to publish the creation of the Eurométropole …
The main problem of the Eurométropole is the question of the recruitment of the
cross-border agency team. In the project sheet of 03/03/2009, it was written that « the
whole operational team should be complete and in position for mid-2009 », but almost one
year later we can see that the problem stays the same and this lack of human means makes
the Eurométropole’s efficiency difficult.
For the moment this is the agency recruitment situation:
Name of the Employment Date of creation Person employed
General director 28/01/2008 1st assembly Stéphane Van de
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Secretary
One projects coordinator
One communication officer
One administrative and
financial officer
Three officers for the
animation of the thematic
working groups
Two assistants
28/01/2008 1st assembly
01/09/08 2nd assembly
01/09/08 2nd assembly
01/09/08 2nd assembly
01/09/08 2nd assembly
01/09/08 2nd assembly
Meulebroucke
Ira KEIRSBILCK
(08/2009)
Piet QUATAERT will replace
Rejanne BEURRIER
in March 2010
Céline DELEGLISE
(16/ 03/2009)
Xavier MERLIN
(01/11/2009)
Wim DE JAEGER
08/03/2010)
Els OYAERT
(01/11/2009)
The main mission of this agency team is to establish a constant link between the
political level and the operational/technical units. There are a lot of things to do which
request high professional qualities: knowledge of the partners’ culture and legislation,
political tendency… All these « high professional qualities » are complex to find so the
general director of the agency has been chosen very late (9 th of April 2010)
Moreover, the recruitment requirements have to be adapted to the French and
Belgian professional status.
The respect of bilinguism is difficult too and in order to start the recruitment and to
allow candidatures, some decisions have been taken: except for the general director, total
bilinguism is not compulsory and language lessons will be given in order to improve the level
of the workers. But meetings have to be bilingual and often translations are necesary for the
partners, which implies an additional cost.
Finally, there is a need to strengthen the link between the various organs of the
Eurometropolitan governance.
e. Solutions to be developed
One weakness of the EGTC is that no city (municipality) belongs to it. The solution
that has been developped is to create a « Mayors’ conference » (Conférence des Maires et
Bourgmestres), held once a year. This organ can give advices or make remarks and ask
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questions to the Assembly of the EGTC. The link between the Assembly and the « Mayors’
Conference » has to be strengthened.
At regional level, the EGTC was created in order to create that multilevel dialogue.
The challenge will be to make sure that the common strategy will be well linked to each
actor’s strategy.
f. Recommendations at national and European levels
At a national level, one recommandation is to develop the right to experimentation
and to work in order to simplify the cross-border workers conditions.
At EU level, a recommandation is to strenghten the fundings for crossborder cooperation
projects and crossborder governance issues.
2) « Community » issues
a. Starting situation
The application to the Olympic Games (« Lille 2004 ») was already supported by a
representative group of the different parts of the society, the « Comité Grand Lille ».
In France, a 1999 law made the creation of « Conseils de Développement »
(development council) possible for each agglomeration which has more than 50 000
inhabitants. Those organs involve different representatives of the « civil society »:
businesses, NGOs and local groups…
The council gives an advice to each major development plan developed on its territory.
In order to improve its crossborder cooperation, the Lille Conseil de Développement
was created in 2002 and has several Belgian members. It gives an advice on crossborder
issues.
On the Belgian side, there is no such law. The Flemish and Walloon neighbouring
territories decided, though, to create their owns « forum » and « conseil » : « Transforum »
and « Conseil de la Wallonie Picarde ».
b. Good practices experimented by the cross-border conurbation
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There was a consensus on the need to improve the network between those 3
councils and to create such a structure for the whole territory of the EGTC. The
eurometropolitan council was officially created in March 2009. Called « the Forum », its
organization scheme was approved by the board on July, 6. The first official meeting of that
new council was held in September. Its seat is in Tournai (Belgium) and this structure allows
the implication of the civil society in eurometropolitan issues. The forum organizes its own
work program.
It is very important to note that it will not replace the different « Conseils de
développment », but it is a new link between the « Conseil de développement de Lille
Métropole », the « Transforum » and the « Conseil de la Wallonie Picarde ».The aim was to
create something institutional and functional. Each of these councils has some
representatives in the Forum.
Board of the Eurometropole Forum
President Patrick PEUGEOT insurance - companies
French
Chantal training - insertion -
UYTTERHAGEN mediation
Claudie Bossut
social
Dominique Chuffart culture - transport
Walloon Philippe LUYTEN companies -computing
Daniel Hubermont Trade unionist
Flemish
Piet VANDEN
ABEELE
Marleen Verfaillie
University-psychologyeconomy-
Liberal work - lawyer -
transfrontier TV
In order to
organize a working
program,
a
questionnaire has been
sent to the Forum’s
members. Among
different subjects (innovation, education, farming, tourism, health, languages, culture…),
they will have to determine the themes for which the Forum could bring an added-value to
the Eurometropole (answer in April during the next meeting of the Forum).
c. Problems to be solved
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As it is written above, there is a consensus on the need to improve the network
between the « Transforum », the « Conseil de la Wallonie Picarde », and « Lille Conseil de
développement ». The link between the Forum and the Eurometropole has to be improved
too and a better definition of its role is still in progress towards various meetings.
In order to be better indentified by the civil society, the Eurometropole has started a real
communication strategy presented in the challenge 2 b (see the activities program).
d. Solutions to be developed
See above
e. Recommendations at national and European levels
At this stage, it is believed that each territory should develop its own practice of involving its
crossborder community. The Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai example can only be considered as a good
attempt.
II. The activities programme
19

Challenge 1 : Launching the EGTC
Type of action
Partnership
(with the lead
patner)
Description of
the action
Intented
outputs
Timescale
Financial sources and
amount
Recommendations
Creation of the
EGTC’s agency
Networking and
information
Finish the
recruitment of
the crossborder
team
Have a ten
person team
Success of the
EGTC
In progress
Budget of the
Eurométropole
Work on the
recruitment rules
Create a financing tool
for EGTCs
Creating a
technical
chanel
Best practices
Reflection on
the links
between
members of the
EGTC and the
EGTC’s team at a
technical level
Success of the
cooperation
on the
territory
medium
EGTC’s members
Regional level: define
the best technical
partnership.
21

Challenge 2 a: Involving the community
Type of action
Partnership
(with the lead
patner)
Description of
the action
Intented outputs
Timescale
Financial sources
and amount
Recommendations
Create the
« Forum »
Best practices,
networking
Creation of a
consultative
structure
where the
community will
be involved
For the community to
be represented
Allow an dynamic
input
Already done
(60 members
set up on
28/09/09)
A half time
position has been
created by the
EGTC to the
financial
management
Create a financing
tool
Linking the
Forum with other
EGTC’s organs
Best practices
Technical and
political links
Improve the decision
making process
Already done
(2009)
Organize an open
seminar
Partnership
on the
organization
A one day open
seminar
organized by
differents
patners
Exchange points of
view on the
involvement of civil
society within crossborder
agglomerations
Aready done
on thursday
11 february
2010 in
Tournai
Cofinanced by
URBACT II
Keep coming to this
kind of seminar in
order to show their
involvements
22

Challenge 2 b: Being identified by the civil society
Type of action
Partnership
(with the lead
patner)
Description of
the action
Intented outputs
Timescale
Financial sources
and amount
Recommendations
Create a
website for the
Eurometropole
Networking
and
information
Good practices
Information and
communication
Bring the civil
society closer
Win more
legitimacy
Ease exchanges
Medium
The
Eurométropole’s
communication
budget
Create a logo
and
a « graphic
charter »
Networking
and
information
Good practices
Information and
communication
Have an
indentity
Be more visible
Short
The
Eurométropole’s
communication
budget
23

Challenge 3: propose concrete improvements for the citizens.
Type of action
Partnership
(with the lead
patner)
Description of the
action
Intented outputs
Timescale
Financial
sources and
amount
Recommendations
Improve the train
network between
France and
Belgium and not
only between Lille
and Kortrijk.
Networking
and
information,
Good
practices
Propose a lower
price ticket, work
on the raising of
frequency
Continue and involve
the partnership
between SNCF and
SNCB in order to
offer concrete
actions for the
citizens
Long
Work on different
conventions
between both
States
Create a touristic
map for the
Eurometropolitan
territory.
Networking
and
information,
Good
practices
Begin with the
creation of a
touristic map and
then of the virtual
« tourist center »
Ease tourism within
the Eurometropole
for the metropolitan
inhabitants and for
others.
medium
The
Eurometropole’
s budget
24

III. Network and communication
activities
Perspectives
1) Contacts with regional, national and European
administrations
The Eurométropole « Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai » has very strong contacts with the regional
administration tohrough its representatives because the Nord-Pas-de Calais region is one of
the members of the Eurométropole. In fact, on January 28 th 2008, Martine Filleul, vice
president for European affairs, signed the convention of cooperation which makes the Nord-
Pas-de-Calais region one of the founding members of the Eurométropole « Lille-Kortrijk-
Tournai ». Four representatives of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region are members of the
Eurométropole assembly: Martine Filleul, Françoise Dal, Eric Renaud and Brigitte Astruc.
Every day the Eurométropole « Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai » is in relation with the national
administration through the membership of the states. The « Prefet de région », Jean Michel
Berard, who is the national representative at the regional level, is a member of the board.
We can hope that the contact with the state administration will be improved.
In fact, as the MOT informed us during the meeting in Kortrijk (10/02/2010), an
interparliamentary mission was launched by the French Prime Minister’s office in order to
identify the needs of the French border territories. A conference was organized on 9
February 2010 in Paris and the report will be delivered at the end of March 2010. During this
conference the MOT underlined the need for a central coordination at interministerial level
to involve all relevant ministries; recognition of a necessary link with the regional and local
levels; one common framework border by border… In other countries, a similar reflection is
also ongoing: to develop support activities on cross-border cooperation from national
25

authorities. An exchange of methods and experiences could be developed by MOT on this
issue.
Beeing member of a European project allows one to weave stronger links with the
European administration: for example M. Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European
Union, assisted to an assembly of the Eurométropole on April 9 th 2010.
2) Contacts with other cross-border conurbations
Lille Métropole was in contact with various cross-border conurbations, for example:
• For exchanges on the EGTC :
- Öresund Direkt: exchange on the economic cooperation, the EGTC, the transfrontier
Medias, the fiscal status of the transfrontier workers.
- Conference transjurassienne
- EGTC Pyrénées Méditerranée
- Prefecture of Florina, Greece
- Consortio bidasoa txingudi (conference on the EGTC)
• For various exchanges :
- Provincie limburg, the Netherlands
- City of Hamburg
- Urban planning agency of Bayonne (AUDAP): exchange on transfrontier strategy and
metropolization.
- …
26

3) Description of activities and documents
A lot of transfrontier projects have been set up arround the Frech-Belgian border before the
creation of the Eurométropole. At the moment the six thematic working groups have just
been created, but we can imagine that on the long time the Eurometropole could be an
efficient structure to sustain this kind of projects and to help on the governance issues.
Today the Eurométropole has already put in concrete form some projects.
Creation of a partnership between the SNCF and the SNCB.
The signature of a French-Belgian agreement on train transportation in order to improve
prices, quality of services and to set up the first direct trains which connect Lille, Tournai and
Kortrijk every hour is the first concrete action of the Eurometropole. The price of the ticket
changed from 8,80 to 7,40 euros. But everything is not finished: the aim will be to manage to
remove the tax of the border passage in order to propose a lower price ticket. The question
is to know which state will pay the difference and how much? The raising of the train
frequency is already in discussion…
Co-organization of a seminar in the various symbolic places of the
Eurometropole
On 10 February 2010, the technical meeting between the partners of the URBACT EGTC
project took place in Courtrai. This was the opportunity for the Eurométropole Agency team
to meet the different partners of the project
and to present to them the Eurométropole.
© V. Lecigne, Lille Métropole
On Thursday 11 February 2010, the seminar
« Involvement of the civil society within
cross-border agglomerations » was organized
in Tournai. Co-financed by the URBACT II
program, the aim was to exchange on methods
and tools to improve the governance of their
cross-border conurbations, including the
27

European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation instrument.
On 12 February 2010, Lille
Eurometropole co-organized and
welcomed the seminar « Managing
metropolitan areas/city-regions accross
boundaries and frontiers ».
More than 100 persons, coming from all
Europe and further, participated and
exchanged on various themes. These two
© V. Lecigne, Lille Métropole
days showed that it is necessary and
difficult to involve the civil society in the agglomeration’s governance. All these exchanges of
ideas and experimentations feed the reflection on how to improve the cross-border
cooperation between France and Belgium.
Organization of « the meeting of the innovation »
04/03/2010: an all day organized in Kortrijk in order to debate and discuss on the clusters
and how to improve the competitiveness of the territory. This day was organized for the
companies’ directors. The aim was to become more competitive, to weigh more in Europe
and in the world in order to win the innovation bet because innovation is essential for the
cross-border territory’s growth. So, 150 actors of the economic world came to Kortrijk to
exchange on various themes such as health and nutrition, picture, textile, and logistics.
These meetings result from the works of the group « Economic development, Employment,
Training and Research », whose president is Michel-François DELANNOY, and which started
in July 2009. The working group worked in strong relation with Pierre de SAINTIGNON, vice
president of Lille Métropole, Philippe LUYTEN, president of the Walloon Picardy Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, and Jean de BETHUNE, president of the provincial Council of
Western Flanders.
28

For all these activities, every kind of documents has been used in order to touch the
inhabitants, including TV.
Moreover, a communication strategy had started to develop the communication adressed to
the inhabitants of the Eurométropole. As we saw it in the « activity program » the
Eurométropole Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai is working on the creation of a website, a logo and a
« graphic charter » because it needs to be more easily identified. There is a lot of
communication on Lille Metropole’s website and through its various magazines. Waiting for
its own website, the Eurométropole Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai is introduced to the civil society
through different very popular websites.
- http://www.lillemetropole.fr
More Informations ?
- http://conferenceeurometropole.wordpress.com
29

Civil Society
Political Organs
Technical level
Advisory Bodies
Decision making
Are represented in
Lille Conseil de
Développement
Transforum
Forum
Tournai
(60 members, set
up on 28/09/09)
Conference of the
Mayors
(147 members, 1st
meeting held on
14/10/09)
Mandates
PROPOSES
Feeds
Six thematic working groups
- Mobility/accessibility
- Economic developement
- Tourism
- Services to the population
- Territorial Strategy,
sustainable development
- Culture
Chairmanship
(Changes every year,
4 members)
Assembly
(84 members, 2
meetings/year)
Board
(32 members ; 4
meetings/year)
Chooses
Coordinates
Agency
– Courtrai-
10 members
- General director
- Secretary
- One project coordinator
- One communication officer
- One administrative and
financial officer
- Three officers for the
animation of the thematic
working groups
- Two assistants
The recruitment is still in
progress.
Technical group
One technical representative for
each of the 14 members of the
Eurométropole
Conseil de la
Wallonie Picarde
Elects
Feeds the reflections of
Apendix :
The Eurométropole governance
30