- Founded in Geneva in 1996 in association with the Council of Europe, FEDRE(www.fedre.org)has always focused on cross-border regions. In 2023, it formed a partnership with Crédit Agricole next bank to study the border effect in the regions surrounding Switzerland. Following Issue 1, which addressed food aid; Issue 2, which examined challenges in the healthcare sector; Issue 3, which presented a vital topic for our regions—water; Issue 4, which focused on culture; Issue 5, which tackled the sensitive issue of who compensates cross-border workers for unemployment; Issue 6 focused on the idea of a cross-border resident card,the next issue analyzed sustainable mobility in cross-border urban areas, Issue 8 was devoted to the European aspects of cross-border cooperation, Issue 9 to the diversity of tax systems for cross-border workers, Issue 10 to the difference between Switzerland and its neighbors in counting the unemployed, Issue 11 on the planning of sustainable transport infrastructure in border regions, Issue 12 on the contribution of culture to a shared cross-border identity, Issue 13 on the growing importance of border phenomena and the changing role of borders, Issue 14 on the role of sports in cross-border relations, and here is issue 15, which tackles an ambitious topic: democracy in cross-border regions.
- Democracy? An ideal that can be summed up by Lincoln’s phrase: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people.” But it’s less straightforward in reality, and even more complicated in cross-border regions where significantly different legal, political, and administrative systems—as well as the behaviors associated with them—come into contact. It is therefore worth asking: where does democracy stand in cross-border regions?
The ideal…
It may have been forgotten, but one of the leading advocates of the idea of cross-border regions was the European thinker Denis de Rougemont (1906–1985), a native of Neuchâtel, who explored this concept as part of his reflections in the 1960s and 1970s on “the Europe of Regions.” A resident of the Pays de Gex since 1947 (Ferney-Voltaire, then Saint-Genis-Pouilly), it was in Geneva, at the European Center for Culture that he directed, that he formulated his theories on Europe and the regions.
For Denis de Rougemont, regions should above all be “spaces for civic participation” that would make it possible, in an increasingly globalized and technocratic world, to restore what he called “communities on a human scale”—conditions he believed were essential for active citizenship (one can sense the Swiss influence) and a vibrant democracy. He also envisioned cross-border regions as functional and flexible entities, enabling the joint management of all kinds of issues that transcend the borders inherited from the past.
… to reality
There’s no point in denying it: the reality is much more mundane. Yet there’s no denying that cross-border institutions have sprung up all over the place. Following the region around Basel (Regio Basiliensis) in 1963, then the Franco-Geneva Regional Committee (CRFG) in 1973, the Jura Arc (Burgundy-Franche-Comté, Jura, Neuchâtel, Bern, Vaud), and the Conseil du Léman (Geneva, Vaud, Valais, Ain, Haute-Savoie), to which a new addition was made in 2013: the GLCT of the so-called “Greater Geneva” metropolitan area.
All these bodies specialize in a specific functional role, with ambitions that may sometimes narrow somewhat—as we see today with the Lake Geneva Council—or, on the contrary, expand significantly, as is the case with Greater Geneva, which was originally limited specifically to planning, mobility, and environmental tasks but now wishes to address housing, land use, social issues, culture, health… But are they democratic?
Too much technocracy, too little democracy?… If so, what can be done?
Admittedly, all the institutions mentioned are headed by bodies composed of elected officials from the territories they cover (to which are added, in the Jura Arc and the CRFG, the French regional prefects). But it is safe to say that all of this is far removed from the average citizen. Thus, the criticism most often leveled at them is that they have been unable to shake off a technocratic profile that leaves little room for citizen participation.
A small group of people, deeply committed to the cause, are advocating for the creation of a Greater Geneva Cross-Border Assembly. About fifteen years ago, similar ideas were already raised during the revision of the Constitution of the Canton of Geneva, but to no avail. While the objective is clear, its implementation raises so many political, legal, jurisdictional, electoral, and even legitimacy issues that it is hard to imagine such a representative body being established anytime soon (though Nicolas Levrat, a legal scholar at the University of Geneva, does suggest a few possible approaches).
The CRFG and the Conseil du Léman do not hold assemblies. Greater Geneva, on the other hand, has an “Agglomeration Forum” whose purpose is to represent cross-border civil society—that is, the visible tip of the iceberg of NGOs active in this region, often in connection with a specific issue. It can take up issues on its own initiative and convey its recommendations to the political authorities of Greater Geneva, who are under no obligation to take them into account. Nevertheless, it serves as a source of new ideas, giving it a “thorn in the side” quality that is not always unwelcome.
How could this Forum be strengthened without turning it into an assembly (since its members are not elected)? One idea (discussed within the Forum itself) is to grant it a status similar to that of theRegio Basiliensis, which has been organized as an association from the outset, but without losing the budgetary advantage of being a body of Greater Geneva. In a context different from that of Geneva, theRegio Basiliensishas long been able to serve as a catalyst, a think tank, and an implementing body acting on mandates from political authorities. The idea warrants further exploration, but the first step should be an in-depth study of the Basel model to formulate a proposal based on what appears transferable, without overlooking the European dimension—which is omnipresent in Basel but curiously overlooked in Geneva.