Upper Rhine Conference

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The Upper Rhine Conference (actually German-French-Swiss Upper Rhine Conference ) represents the institutional framework for cross-border cooperation in the Upper Rhine area. It is the successor to the regional committees accompanying the work of the German-French-Swiss government commission ( binational regional committee for the northern, trinational regional committee for the southern Upper Rhine area). These committees emerged in 1975 from a government agreement concluded between Germany , France and Switzerland .

The seat of the Joint Secretariat of the Upper Rhine Conference created in 1996 is in the competence center for cross-border and European issues in the city of Kehl .

Organization and structure

The bodies of the Upper Rhine Conference:

  • Presidium : Coordination and decision-making body of the ORK, consists of a German, a French and a Swiss delegation, the heads of which take turns chairing the Upper Rhine Conference for one calendar year. The heads of delegation are each
  • Plenum : Discussion body of the ORK, consists of a German, a French and a Swiss delegation with a maximum of 25 members each, who are determined by the respective head of the delegation (see Presidium).
  • Joint secretariat : Management of the ORK, consisting of a permanent representative (delegation secretary ) from the German, French and Swiss delegations and an assistant.
  • Coordination Committee of the Joint Secretariat : mediating body between the Secretariat and the Presidium.
  • Working groups : Twelve working groups were set up for the cross-border topics dealt with by the Upper Rhine Conference, made up of experts from the German, French and Swiss partner authorities. There are working groups on the following topics:
    • Education
    • health
    • youth
    • Disaster relief
    • Climate and energy
    • Culture
    • Agriculture
    • Spatial planning
    • Sports
    • environment
    • traffic
    • economy

The working groups outsource the development of special topics or the implementation of certain projects to expert committees. There are around 35 such expert committees.

Three-country congresses

Since 1988 a three-country congress has been held roughly every two years, which presents the results of cross-border cooperation to a broad public, but at the same time acts as an impetus for further work through the political decisions made there (final declaration). The congresses are organized alternately by one of the three participating countries.

The 13th three-country congress took place on June 27, 2012 under the motto "Rendez-vous régional - civil society in dialogue with ..." in Landau in the Palatinate .

The 12th three-country congress on the subject of "Education, Research and Innovation" took place in Basel in 2010 and was organized by REGIO BASILIENSIS on behalf of the five cantons of north-west Switzerland.

The 11th three-country congress "The Upper Rhine: A model for development and cooperation" was organized by the Alsace region in 2008 in Strasbourg . The focus was on efforts to initiate the establishment of a tri-national metropolitan region Upper Rhine (TMO) . The TMO concept brings together representatives from politics, administration, business, science and citizens in order to develop the Upper Rhine into a dynamic economic, knowledge and living area in Europe together and on an equal footing. At the initiative of the Upper Rhine Conference, the foundation stone of the TMO was finally laid on December 9, 2010 in Offenburg .

All three-country congresses (with main topic, location and year):

  • Verkehr, Kehl 1988
  • Culture, Strasbourg 1989
  • Environment, Basel 1991
  • Economy, Karlsruhe 1992
  • Youth, Education and Work, Strasbourg 1995
  • Crafts and trades, Basel 1997
  • Regional planning, Neustadt an der Weinstrasse 1999
  • Being a citizen on the Upper Rhine, Strasbourg 2002
  • Media and communication on the Upper Rhine, Basel 2004
  • Future of the Upper Rhine in an enlarged Europe, Freiburg im Breisgau 2006
  • The Upper Rhine: Model for Development and Cooperation, Strasbourg 2008
  • Education, Research and Innovation, Basel 2010
  • Civil society, Landau in der Pfalz 2012
  • Mobility in the river - The development of traffic on the Upper Rhine (Mobilité en mouvement - Le développement des transports dans le Rhin supérieur), Kandel 2018

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Bonn Agreement", agreement between the governments of the Federal Republic of Germany, the French Republic and the Swiss Confederation on the formation of a commission to examine and resolve neighborhood issues of October 22, 1975.
  2. ↑ http://www.oberrheinkonferenz.org/de/oberrheinkonferenz/organisation.html