Bridging cities for building Europe: the case of the French North-Eastern Border
Date
2016
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AESOP
Abstract
Europe is a recent construction at the scale of the history. In 1958, its ambition was to ensure peace in a continent which has known a lot of wars and crises. One aspect has concerned the effacement of the borders, if not their disparition. So, since the 80’s, crossborder cooperation have been encouraged. A programme like Interreg is emblematic of this orientation. But one of the most interesting evolution concerns the territorial cooperation, linked to territorial project in métropolitan areas and main cities located in border regions, such as Aachen, Maastricht, Liège (Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium), Vienna and Bratislava (Austria and Slovakia), Frankfurt-on-Oder and Slubice (Germany and Poland).
The case of the French North-Eastern Border is surely emblematic of this evolution toward peace and development due to the role of crossborder projects around metropolises and main cities. From Dunkirk in French Flanders to Mulhouse and Saint-Louis in Alsace, cities and metropolises along the frontier with Belgium, Luxemburg and Germany constitute the new gates of the French « open field », in reference to the theory of the « Pré Carré » (France considered like something as an enclosure) of Vauban, military engineer of the king Louis XIV, who fortified, in the XVIIth century, all the cities, from Flanders to Alsace against enemies and invaders.
Description
Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
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