The Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau is a

Franco Franco may refer to: Name * Franco (name) * Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975 * Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître" * Franco of Cologne (mid to late 13th cent ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

eurodistrict A eurodistrict is a European administrative entity that contains urban agglomerations which lie across the border between two or more states. A eurodistrict offers a program for cooperation and integration of the towns or communes which it com ...

, a cross-border administrative entity (''European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation'') sharing common institutions, established on 17 October 2005 and definitely functional since 4 February 2010. The district is formed by the

Eurométropole de Strasbourg Eurométropole de Strasbourg () is the ''métropole'', an intercommunal structure, centred on the city of Strasbourg. It is located in the Bas-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region, northeastern France. It was created in January 2015, replacin ...

(centred on the city of

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

), the Communauté de communes du Canton d'Erstein (a groupement of the urban communities of

Rhinau Rhinau (; ) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department of Grand Est in north-eastern France. Until 1398, the village was located on the bank of the Rhine. The present village dates from the sixteenth century. At periods of low water in the Rhine ...

Erstein Erstein (, ; ) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department, in the region of Grand Est, France. History An important necropolis from the Merovingian era (6th-7th century) has been excavated near Erstein in 1999–2000. Erstein was known in Alsa ...

and

Benfeld Benfeld (; Alsatian: ''Banfald'' ) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in northeastern France. It is situated on the river Ill. In the nearby hamlet Ehl there is an archaeological site with the remains of the Gallo-Roman city ...

) and the French State on the French side of the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

and the Ortenau district, comprising the cities of

Achern Achern (; ) is a city in Western Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located approximately 18 km southwest of Baden-Baden and 19 km northeast of Offenburg. Achern is the fourth largest town in the district of Ortenau (Ortenaukreis), aft ...

Kehl Kehl (; ) is a city with around 38,000 inhabitants in the southwestern Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg. It lies in the region of Baden on the Rhine River, at the confluence with the smaller Kinzig (Rhine), Kinzig River, directly oppo ...

Lahr Lahr (officially Lahr/Schwarzwald since 30 September 1978) (); ) is a city in western Baden-Württemberg, Germany, approximately 50 km north of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, 40 km southeast of Strasbourg, and 95 km southwest of Ka ...

, Oberkirch and

Offenburg Offenburg (; "open borough" - coat of arms showing open gates; Low Alemmanic: ''Offäburg'') is a city in the state of Baden-Württemberg, in south-western Germany. With nearly 60,000 inhabitants (2019), it is the largest city and the administrat ...

, in the

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

region on the German side.Bienvenue sur le site de l’Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau
district official website The population of the district was roughly 1,000,000 in 2022, and it covers an area of
Building on regional and Franco-German cooperation, it aims to develop bonds between citizens, associations, public administrations, educational establishments and corporations. It is also in the context of

European integration European integration is the process of political, legal, social, regional and economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe, or nearby. European integration has primarily but not exclusively come about through the European Union ...

, with the presence of

European institutions in Strasbourg There are a range of European institutions in Strasbourg (France), the oldest of which dates back to 1815. In all, there are more than twenty different institutions, addressing European integration and prosperity, based in the Alsatian city.

, and has been compared to a EU version of

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

The Eurodistrict's Council is composed of 30 members, with 15 each representing either the French or the German side.

History

The idea of a eurodistrict Strasbourg-Kehl (as it was called then) was officially launched on 22 January 2003, by then-

French President The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency is the supreme magistracy of the country, the pos ...

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, ; ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Pari ...

and then-

German Chancellor The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, is the head of the federal government of Germany. The chancellor is the chief executive of the Federal Cabinet and heads the executive branch. Th ...

Gerhard Schröder Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder (; born 7 April 1944) is a German former politician and Lobbying, lobbyist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. From 1999 to 2004, he was also the Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (S ...

during a meeting in the

Élysée Palace The Élysée Palace (, ) is the official residence of the President of France, President of the French Republic in Paris. Completed in 1722, it was built for Louis Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, a nobleman and army officer who had been appointed g ...

; it was point 24 of the common declaration made on the 40th anniversary of the cooperation treaty between Germany and France. 22 January was furthermore declared "French-German day" (''journée franco-allemande'', ''deutsch-französischer Tag'') A common resolution to create the Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurodistrict was signed on 24 May 2003 in

Fabienne Keller Fabienne Keller (born 20 October 1959 in Sélestat, Bas-Rhin) is a French politician who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019. She was previously the mayor ( UDF) of Strasbourg, France, from March 2001 to March 2008 ...

, the mayor of Strasbourg,

Robert Grossmann The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, praise, reno ...

, the president of the Communauté urbaine de Strasbourg, the mayors of Kehl, Offenburg, Achern, Lahr and Oberkirch as well as the President (''Landrat'') of the Ortenau district. The resolution's aim was to present a viable version of the project at the upcoming French-German summit on 10 June 2003. On 30 June 2003, the French minister for European Affairs, Noëlle Lenoir, and her German colleague, Hans Martin Bury, signed the official document specifying the legal, political, economical, demographic etc. frameworks (''cadres'') within which the Eurodistrict was to be called into existence. The document also announced that further presentations of the project were to be made at the French-German summit in the following autumn, as well as during the crossborder flower festival on both banks of the Rhine held in Strasbourg and Kehl in the spring 2004.

Mayor of Strasbourg Prior to the French Revolution, Strasbourg was led by an Ammestre. List of Mayors of Strasbourg since the French Revolution {, class="wikitable" !# !Name ! colspan="2" , In office !Party !Ref. , - !1 , Baron Philippe-Frédéric de Dietric ...

Roland Ries Roland Ries (born 11 January 1945) is a French politician from Alsace who has held several posts on local, regional and national level between 1997 and 2020. A member of the Socialist Party and mayor of Strasbourg between 2008 and 2020 Ries also ...

, during and after his election campaign in 2007, proposed the strengthening of the district in order to maintain the presence of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

in the city (see

Location of European Union institutions The seven institutions of the European Union (EU) are seated in four different cities, which are Brussels (Belgium), Frankfurt am Main (Germany), Luxembourg (Luxembourg) and Strasbourg (France), rather than being concentrated in a single capit ...

) and making it more autonomous and akin to a European capital territory. However the Ortenaukreis communities have been less enthusiastic about the Eurodistrict project. In late January 2010 the German State greenlighted the entity and the inaugural session of the Eurodistrict's Council took place on 4 February 2010. Roland Ries was elected as the council's first president.''Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau / Séance inaugurale du conseil''

Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace ''Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace'', commonly known as ''DNA'', is a regional daily French newspaper covering the Alsace region. History and profile ''DNA'' was created in November 1877 as ''Neueste Nachrichten'' by German Heinrich Ludwig K ...

, 5 February 2010

Transportation

The Eurodistrict is served by several cross-border transportation companies:

Ortenau S-Bahn Ortenau Regional S-Bahn is the brand name of the Südwestdeutsche Landesverkehrs-GmbH (SWEG), a transport company owned by the state of Baden-Württemberg, used for suburban and regional railway services in the Ortenau area with services extendi ...

(railway),

TER Alsace TER Alsace was the regional rail network serving the région of Alsace, eastern France. In 2016 it was merged into the new TER Grand Est. Network Rail Road * Cernay – Sewen * Colmar – Turckheim – Munster – Metzeral * Colmar – ...

(railway),

Compagnie des Transports Strasbourgeois The Compagnie des Transports Strasbourgeois (CTS, ) is the company responsible for the comprehensive public transport network of the Eurométropole de Strasbourg, the urban community of the French city of Strasbourg. The CTS currently operates ...

(tramway and buses).

References

External links

Official website
(German and French only)
Strasbourg Region
{{Authority control Geography of Strasbourg Ortenaukreis Eurodistricts Geography of Baden-Württemberg Transborder agglomerations Upper Rhine