Overview of the challenges and effects of cross-border mobility in the EU and in the Alps

The first webinar organised by the DINAMO project focused on cross-border mobility which is a priority topic for the Alps, with 13 cross-border areas among the 7 Alpine countries. Annabell Schlösser from the Association of European Border Regions gave a series of challenges to cross-border mobility – such as historical factors, administrative barriers, legal and administrative factors, socio-cultural differences – and illustrated with the example of the PAMINA eurodistrict mobility plan (Palatinat du Sud, Mittlerer Oberrhein, Nord de l'Alsace) how these challenges could be overcome from time to time.

Raphaël Lelouvier from the permanent secretariat of the Alpine Convention exposed the particularities of cross-border mobility in the Alps: the high number of cross-border interconnected urban areas (either morphological or functional), the intensity of freight transport across the Alps, and the tourism index. Based on this current situation, he exposed some future priorities for the Alpine area concerning mobility such as harmonising ticket standards and rail standards across the Alpine countries, using the Alpine governance bodies to collectively change the approach to tourism, and accelerating the modal shift from road to rail or active mobility. The Transport Working Group of the Alpine Convention has already identified numerous good practices such as the iMonitraf network, the Yoalin rail ticket for young adults, and the network of Mountaineering Villages in the Alps for instance.

European and Alpine Strategies and subsidies for mobility solutions

In this second webinar, the aim was to move on from the state of play of cross-border mobility challenges in the Alps to some concrete and technical examples of what could be done. From the EU level with Rafal Stanecki from the European Commission, to EUSALP with Simon Soltner from the Technical Support Service, and finally a regional project with Xavier Garcia of the French Sud Region.

Rafal Stanecki exposed the current EU framework concerning rural mobility, at the crossroads between the Green Deal and the long-term strategy for rural areas. The financial instrument associated is the Interreg programme to develop new projects (with the dedicated Interreg Alpine Space programme in the Alpine area), but there are also several less-known legal initiatives to look out for with many impacts to come on national and regional policies – for instance, the revised regulation for the development of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T), the recently agreed revised Intelligent Transport System (ITS), and the common European mobility data space (EMDS).

Xavier Garcia from the French Région SUD-PACA, also co-chair of the EUSALP Action group on mobility then illustrated how general strategies such as EU-level and Alpine-level could apply to a regional project. Indeed, the Nice-Tende-Cuneo-Vintimiglia train line owes its revival to a first EUSALP certification, a later integration into the TEN-T network mentioned above, and an Interreg-funded feasibility study (through the Alcotra strand).

Key discussion points

Both webinars led to questions about the involvement of municipalities and local inhabitants in mobility projects, seeing as the scale of such projects is often way bigger than the municipal scale and that the competence often lies with the region or the national level. Questions were also raised on the links between European research priorities and the sustainable mobility strategy, and about the more general question of competition for funds between the different political priorities of the European Union.

To find out more

To download the webinar presentations, please visit this page

To find out more about the Erasmus+ DINAMO project, click here