LORRAINE-NORTH. The metropolitan border hub turns to Luxembourg
After Christian Ariès and Michel Liebgott, Pierre Cuny takes over the presidency of the Metropolitan Border Pole, created in January 2019 and which today brings together eight inter-municipalities in northern Lorraine: Thionville-Portes de France, Val de Fensch, the agglo de Longwy , the Moselle Arc, the Pays-Haut-Val d’Alzette, Cattenom and surroundings, the Heart of the Pays-Haut and Land of Lorraine in Longuyonnais. That is 150 municipalities and 340,000 inhabitants. In October 2021, the PMF took part, for the first time, in the Franco-Luxembourg Intergovernmental Conference (IGC), in Esch-sur-Alzette. A recognition by the State which allows it to be a real force of proposals and orientations. But not only ! “We have to build concrete projects in collaboration with the Grand Duchy which, until now, had two interlocutors on the French side: the State and the Grand Est Region”, explains Pierre Cuny, Mayor of Thionville and President of Thionville- Gates of France.
The objectives are therefore well defined. The actions of the PMF cover four areas: mobility, economic development and culture, health and services (especially early childhood), higher education and vocational training. Pierre Cuny intends to work in concert with the EGTC Alzette-Belval and the ProSud union, which bring together eleven municipalities in the south of the Grand Duchy. For the time being, the PMF is preparing the next CIG where it will present its “multimodal program for interoperability and development of Franco-Luxembourg mobility”. It is in fact a plan which should make it possible to intelligently install P+R car parks on the territory of the cluster, in connection with the creation of high-level bus networks. Knowing that the new president is campaigning for the last 10 kilometers of the journey to work not to be made by car.