Cross-border cooperation is a long haul. That is why the Franco-Spanish Barcelona summit of 17 October is to be welcomed as a major step forward.
For years now, regional and local authorities across the Pyrenees have been forging many kinds of relations, at all levels and in various areas: our three border regions, most of the French departments, some local administrations and the Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz Urban Community have formed partnerships with their trans-Pyrenean counterparts. In 1995, the Bayonne Treaty gave new impetus to these efforts by introducing a minor legal revolution into our highly Jacobin national legislation: French local authorities can now take part in groupings of local authorities governed by Spanish law; this has allowed Hendaye to join Irún and Hondarribia in the ‘consorcio’ of Txingudi. More recently, the Working Community of the Pyrenees, whose members are regional bodies, has chosen that same status of ‘consorcio’.
Yet progress remains very slow and the local councillors (of whom there are still too few) who resolutely embarked on this road all too often felt they were fighting a lost cause. It was not for lack of political will. What we lack is the ability to organise ourselves effectively to promote common projects in fundamentally different political, legal, administrative and cultural contexts. The problem is one of organisation or, as we now call it, of ‘governance’. That reminds me of the letter that appeared a few years ago in the agony column of a major French women’s journal: ‘I love him. He loves me. Our parents agree. What should I do?’
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La coopération transfrontalière est une longue marche. C’est pourquoi il faut saluer la grande première qu’a constituée le sommet franco-espagnol de Barcelone le 17 octobre.
Voilà des années que, par-dessus les Pyrénées, les collectivités territoriales ont engagé des relations multiples, à tous les niveaux, sur des sujets variés : nos trois régions frontalières, la plupart des départements, certaines communes, la Communauté d’agglomération de Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz ont engagé des partenariats avec leurs homologues tras los montes. En 1995, le traité de Bayonne a donné une impulsion nouvelle à ses efforts en introduisant une petite révolution juridique dans notre droit national très jacobin : les collectivités locales françaises sont autorisées à participer à des regroupements de collectivités de droit espagnol, ce qui a permis à Hendaye de s’unir avec Irun et Fontarrabie dans le consorcio du Txingudi. Plus récemment, ce même statut de consorcio a été choisi par la Communauté de travail des Pyrénées, qui rassemble les entités régionales.
Toutefois, ces progrès sont restés très lents et les (encore trop rares) élus locaux qui se sont résolument engagés dans ce chantier ont eu trop souvent l’impression de labourer la mer. Non pas que la volonté politique fasse défaut. Mais nous ne parvenons pas à nous organiser efficacement pour faire avancer des projets communs dans des contextes politiques, juridiques, administratifs et culturels fondamentalement différents. C’est un problème d’organisation ou, comme on dit aujourd’hui, de « gouvernance », qui me rappelle cette missive relevée, il y a quelques années, dans le « Courrier du cœur » d’un grand journal féminin : « Je l’aime. Il m’aime. Nos parents sont d’accord. Que faire ? »
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A series of absurdities may well come to an unfortunate head on 3 October.
European absurdity. To regard a country as ‘European’ when 95% of its territory lies in Asia Minor is implicitly to accept that the European Union will have no frontiers. On what grounds would we then refuse entry in the future to Russia, Armenia, the countries of the Caucasus, Israel and the future Palestinian state, and all the other countries along the shores of the Mediterranean? A British-style Europe conceived as an economic area, without identity and without borders, would then triumph over the French vision of Europe as a power, a major player on the international stage, with its own model for society and its own values.
Democratic absurdity. This is the most surprising and the most shocking aspect, whatever opinion one might have on Turkish accession. No decision as important for the future of the Continent will ever have been taken, since the end of the cold war, with so little democratic debate and with such deliberate disregard for the profound feelings expressed by public opinion. The most recent poll (IFOP, published in Valeurs Actuelles on 30 September) shows that nearly two out of three French people are against Turkish accession, including 70% of UMP and UDF sympathisers and a majority of both socialists and communists. This popular sentiment is shared in at least ten Member States.
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