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First meeting of the Franco-German Cross-Border Cooperation Committee in Hambach Castle
The Franco-German Cross-Border Cooperation Committee is meeting for the first time today (22 January) in Hambach Castle, thus implementing one of the key objectives of the Treaty of Aachen, which was signed a year ago today by Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Emmanuel Macron, with the goal of putting bilateral relations on a new footing. The constitutive meeting was chaired by Minister of State for Europe Michael Roth, Commissioner for Franco-German Cooperation, and his French counterpart Amélie de Montchalin.
Minister of State Roth issued the following statement:
I regard cross-border cooperation as the heart of the Treaty of Aachen. The EU is put into practice and shaped every day in the border regions. People in these regions know best what they find important, annoying and worrying – and how we can find new solutions through cooperation between Germany and France.
Background information:
The Franco-German Cross-Border Cooperation Committee is one of the joint projects agreed by Germany and France in the Treaty of Aachen of 22 January 2019. At its constitutive meeting, the Cross-Border Cooperation Committee agreed on its rules of procedure and the priorities for its work in 2020. The Committee’s Secretariat will be set up in Kehl.