Cross-border cooperation in Europe - the case study of the Greater Region in the field of tourism

Duration: 18. April to 25. June 2012 (10 weeks)

Participants: 8 students

Tutors: René Fleschurz, Christina Steinhauer

Language: German, literature and interviews partly in English

The "Greater Region" is a union between the regions of Wallonia (German and French speaking community), Lorraine, Luxembourg, Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate which developed from its predecessor "SaarLorLux" in 2005. This way the region provides students the opportunity to experience 4 different countries and their different planning cultures and processes within a short period of time.

The goal of the bachelor project was the examination of cross border cooperation in the Greater Region with a focus on tourism. To determine recommendations for action a comparison was drawn to another large-scale border area, the Upper-Rhine Region.

The starting point of the project is the increasing loss of importance of borders, driven by globalization and Europeanization, whereby cooperation between different countries becomes more important, this is also the case for spatial planning. Border regions between more than 2 states pose a particular challenge.

Within the project different (in part multi-day) excursions in the Greater Region took place (Luxembourg City, Saarbrücken) in the course of which a number of interviews were conducted, amongst others with representatives of the EU (INTERREG, EVTZ, ESPON) as well as with representatives of the local tourism industry.