This initiative reflects several objectives:
to achieve a level of international recognition concomitant with its competences and assets, enabling it to play the role of European, cross-border and international metropolis;
to undertake practical cooperative or mutually-supportive actions with other towns and cities in Europe and throughout the world, as well as through international networks, in order to share and enrich its experience of sustainable development.
to respond to the day-to-day challenges of its border location.

Decentralised cooperation

Since the signing of the first cooperation protocol with Rio in 1990, Lille Métropole Urban Community has maintained close relations with towns and cities throughout the world. Its recognised technical know-how in the fields of town planning and water and waste treatment have enabled it to undertake practical initiatives with Lebanon, Brazil, Senegal and Ecuador. These exchanges, which present an opportunity for knowledge-sharing, help to build friendly relations and develop city networks as a basis for a world order in phase with the expectations of citizens. All actions undertaken on the ground respect the principles of sustainable development they aim to disseminate.

Relations with Europe

Although Lille Métropole cooperates with many towns and cities throughout the world, it also participates in essentially European networks. Through sharing projects and experience with major European cities, it helps to raise the awareness of European institutions

of urban problems. Such lobbying action in Brussels enables towns and cities to be included in the European decision-making process and to receive political and financial support. Lille Métropole for example benefits from financial support under the European Union regional policy, also called the “cohesion policy”. Two of the networks to which Lille Métropole belongs are EUROCITIES, which brings together over 130 towns and cities, and the CEMR focusing on cooperation between local and regional authorities. In addition, Lille Métropole participates in more specialised networks like POLIS, which works on transport and new technologies, and ACTE specialising in textiles.

Relations with Belgium

Lille Métropole is also a dynamic force for the construction of a Franco-Belgian conurbation of over 2 million inhabitants, polycentric, binational and tricultural. This movement was started in 1991 by the creation of a political structure bringing together Lille Métropole and the intermunicipal bodies of Tournai (IDETA), Courtrai (LEIEDAL), Ypres-Roulers (WVI) and Mouscron-Comines (IEG). In order to further improve cooperation, the Belgian and French governments charged a parliamentary group with defining solutions for building a genuine Eurodistrict. Named “Lille Kortrijk Tournai” Eurodistrict, it is now the first European Grouping of Cross-border Cooperation (EGCC) established in Europe. Equipped with extended powers, it brings together the French and Belgian states, and Belgian federated entities alongside local and regional authorities, and can also intervene in a number of areas involving cross-border relations: mobility, health, education, employment, tax harmonisation, etc.