Trinational Eurodistrict of Basel


The Trinational Eurodistrict of Basel, or Basel metropolitan area, extends across three countries: Switzerland, France and Germany. The Trinational Eurodistrict of Basel / ) is an organization of municipalities and cities in the trinational surroundings of Basel. The TEB acts as coordinator for cross-border projects between the German, French and Swiss cities around Basel and promotes the cultural and linguistic exchange between the people living in the region. This very close cooperation and coordination is necessary as the national borders run through a densely built area. The TEB forms an extension of the Trinational Agglomeration Basel / ).
The TEB has approximately 830,000 inhabitants. with 60% in Switzerland, 30% in Germany and 10% in France. It consists of:
Cross-border cooperation has a long tradition in the Upper Rhine Valley. The inhabitants of the region have always interacted across the currently known borders. These frequent economic and social interactions across borders also made cooperation on an administrative level increasingly necessary.
During the 19th century however, the amount of cross-border cooperation in the region decreased significantly. The reasons for this can be found in the growing nationalism and outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. The outbreak of the First World War, which lead to the enforcement of the borders, worsened the situation additionally. During both world wars, trade on a local level was still going, but an administrative cooperation on a subnational level seemed impossible.

Institutionalization after the world wars

The cross-border cooperation was taken up again as soon as possible after the end of the Second World War. One of the first big achievements was the opening of the airport "EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg" in 1946. In the years following the Second World War, the cooperation happened mainly on a sectoral and informal level.
The creation of the association Regio Basiliensis in 1963 and the Regio du Haut-Rhin in 1965 were proof that the efforts of institutionalizing the cross-border cooperation in the region started to bear fruits. Anyhow, the informal character of this cooperation was critically observed by the nation-states. The three governments therefore decided to institutionalize the cooperation. This was officially achieved with the ratification of the treaty of Bonn on 22 October 1975.

Introduction of the Interreg program

As a part of its European territorial cooperation, the European Union started implementing the Interreg program in 1989. This gave a considerable boost to the efforts put in new projects. In the first three periods of the program, the region of the upper-rhine was split into different regional Interreg-programs, PAMINA for the northern part and Oberrhein Mitte-Süd for the southern part. Since 2007, both regions are subject of the same Interreg program, Interreg Oberrhein. Since its implementation, the program allows promoters of projects to receive funds from the European Union.

The conference of the Upper-Rhine

Almost simultaneously with the ratification of the treaty of Bonn in 1975, two regional committees were founded: The Comité bipartite for the northern part and the Comité tripartite for the southern part. However, in the following years the division proved to be increasingly ineffective. In 1991, the two committees merged and formed the German-French-Swiss Upper-Rhine conference. The legal status and its official role in the cross-border cooperation was finally established in the German-French-Swiss treaty of Basel in 2000.

The founding of the trinational agglomeration of Basel

After a meeting between politicians, city-planning officials, and business representatives from Alsace, Baden-Württemberg and northwestern Switzerland, a development strategy for the so-called trinational agglomeration of Basel was developed. The concept contained sectoral goals, which were worked towards by implementing projects in the topics settlement, traffic, economy, nature and environment, infrastructure, and political structure. With the establishment of the TAB in 2003, the first coordinated strategy for spatial-planning in a trinational region was formed.

The Eurodistricts

In 2003, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty, Chancellor of Germany Gerhard Schröder and President of France Jacques Chirac, proposed the creation of the Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurodistrict. This proposal created a dynamic. Just one year after the founding of the Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau in 2005, the Eurodistrict of the Region Freiburg / Centre Alsace was founded.
The interest to create a Eurodistrict in the region of Basel was already expressed during the planning of the Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau. The aim was to further develop the structures of the TAB. To achieve this, a project outline was developed by a trinational steering committee in cooperation with Regio Basiliensis and the TAB association.  The idea first had to be ratified by the individual entities, before the foundation agreement could be signed. The foundation agreement of the Trinational Eurodistrict of Basel was finally signed on 26 January 2007 in the French city Saint-Louis.

Structure

The TEB is an association according to local French Law. It consists of different committees and bodies.

The general assembly

The general assembly consists of representatives from the different members. The members each send out one delegate to the assembly. Each delegate has one vote. The assembly is summoned once a year by the president of the TEB. The general assembly defines the orientation, goals and the programs of the association. Additionally, it sets the membership fees and adopts the annual accounting, annual report and the budget.

The board

The board of the TEB consists of each nine French, German and Swiss members. They are elected by the general meeting. The board decides upon the day-to-day business and the management of the association. Associate members and the president of the district council take part in the board meetings with a consultative voice. The meetings take place at least four times a year. The board is elected for a period of two years. Each mandate can be prolonged by reelection. To be allowed on the board, each member also needs to follow an electoral mandate within his territorial entity. Current president is Mike Keller, municipal president of Binningen.

The presidium

The presidium consists of one president and two vice-presidents. Each member of the presidium represents one of the three nations France, Germany and Switzerland. This prevents the association from following the particular interests of only one of the three countries. The president’s term of office is two years. The members take turns in this frequency.
The presidium coordinates the work of the TEB, defines the strategy and monitors the compliance with the articles of the association.

The administrative office

The administrative office represents the administration of the TEB. It supports the work of the board and of the president. The key tasks of the administrative office are the realization of board and presidium decisions, the development of projects, public relations work and the coordination of the work groups and expert groups.

The work groups

The decisions of the board in different topics are then prepared by the work groups. The work groups can then create new projects and form new partnerships. The TEB has the following working groups:
  • Technical coordination group
  • Spatial planning and landscape
  • Mobility and traffic
  • Civil Society

    The advisory board

The advisory board consists of 20 Swiss, 15 French and 15 German members. It meets twice a year. It is subdivided into six permanent commissions:
  1. Commission for education, culture, youth, sports and identity
  2. Commission for social affairs, health and research
  3. Commission for environment, energy and agriculture
  4. Commission for traffic
  5. Commission for spatial planning
  6. Commission for economy, labor market and tourism.
The advisory board can address the board by filing motions, give statements and draw up resolutions.

Goals

The TEB names four superordinate goals:
  • Strengthening the identity of the citizens with the trinational region
  • Augmenting the citizens participation in topics of cross-border cooperation
  • Expanding the cross-border cooperation
  • Shaping a more attractive and livable common European living space

    Funding

The TEB is funded by annual membership fees and through European, national and local subsidies.

Projects

The TEB accompanies various projects, from which some are made possible through the realization of multiple sub-level projects.

International building Exhibition Basel (IBA)

The international building exhibition Basel was created for the period of 2010 to 2020 on the initiative of the TEB by the TEB-members. The IBA supports the realization of cross-border projects with a focus on the topic "landscapes", "urban spaces" and "cohabitation". Examples for such projects are the construction of new parks, neighborhood meeting points and footpaths and cycle paths.
Through this work, the IBA pursues its goal of transferring approaches to create a coherent cross-border area from the strategic and political level to a practical level.