Annual Meeting Regio Basiliensis
12 September 2021
The Swiss organisation Regio Basiliensis held its 58th annual meeting on 9 September in St. Louis, France. Regio Basiliensis has about 450 members (public authorities, entrepreneurs, educational institutions and private persons) in the cantons of Jura, Aargau, Alsace, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft and Solothurn.
Its goal is to promote, stimulate and initiate cooperation and integration in the Rhine region from Schaffhausen, Baden-Württemberg to Rhineland-Palatinate and Alsace (see Regio Basiliensis under Projects).
Apart from the annual topics, this meeting covered the relationship between the European Union and Switzerland and the reorganisation of the Alsace.
As of 1 January 2021, the two departments of Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin in the Alsace have been merged into the Collectivité Européenne D’Alsace (Cea). It means that Alsace is recognised as one region under public law. It was the express wish of the two departments. The goal is more self-government and the preservation of identity.
The CeA has powers to engage in regional cooperation with cross-border projects and cooperation, for example, in tourism, traffic, passenger transport, energy, and multilingualism. Concrete projects include constructing the railway line from Mulhouse Airport to Basel and energy projects.
The mayor of St. Louis Pascale Schmidiger expressed her confidence in this new approach. She also referred to the first international railway line: Basel-Paris (via Strasbourg and St. Louis) in 1845.
Other partners welcomed this initiative as well. The mayor of Weil am Rhein (Germany) Wolfgang Dietz spoke of regions as the best ambassadors to the European Union and the national governments in Paris and Berlin.
After all, it is in the regions that European cooperation is visible and concrete. Problems occur, and solutions appear. Citizens and businesses directly feel the impact of regional cooperation.
Beat Jans, President of the government of canton Basel-Stadt, also welcomed the initiative and referred to the Corona crisis and the importance of regional cooperation as ‘tailor-made’.
The breaking off of the negotiations with the European Union (the so-called Institutional Treaty or Rahmenabkommen) by the Swiss government (Bundesrat) on 26 May was also discussed.
The panel members emphasised the importance of continuing cooperation by the regions; It is in the interest of all parties, the regions, the European Union, its Member States and Switzerland.
Kathrin Amacker (President of Regio Basiliensis) presented the annual medal of honour to the board and the founders of the Association E Friehjohr for unseri approach (Le Printemps de la langue régionale, the spring of our language) from Strasbourg.
This Association is dedicated to preserving Alsace’s (Alemannic) language, which is quite similar to the dialects of Basel and Baden-Württemberg.