Governing economic development in cross-border areas: a case study between France and Luxembourg

Résumé 0

Economic development addresses many issues for urban and regional planning policies, especially concerning land management and local employment. In European cross-border areas, private actors (property developers and investors, manufacturing and logistics companies) elaborate their localization strategies according to the differences between countries in terms of taxation, access to land as well as working force characteristics. Indeed, these differences determine the comparative advantages of the border areas. Moreover, some of the businesses mainly settle on the outskirts of metropolitan areas, where land is more available and affordable and where land use regulation is often weaker. In this context, how do regional and local governments regulate the development of economic activities in cross-border areas? Analyzing industrial lands (industries, logistics, offices, etc.) development policies in the cross-border area between France and Luxembourg, this paper looks at spatial planning strategies and practices to regulate the economic activities. Our study is based on interviews with relevant economic development and spatial planning actors. We identify regulation practices in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to diversify its economy in order to solve the problems of unemployment of the low-skilled population. We highlight planning practices in the French province of Moselle to create employment and reclaim former industrial sites. We explore the governance of economic development through the negotiations between sectoral and territorial policies actors within a country, and between counterparts of both sides of the border.Considering how challenging land use planning is in cross-border areas, the paper demonstrates that spatial planning policies face huge difficulties in regulating industrial lands development and their impacts on urbanization processes. Indeed, the main difficulties correspond to the fact that economic development policies rely on several public policy sectors and on several government levels. In addition, given the importance of economic development at the local and national levels, companies easily find negotiating leeway to circumvent or change the rules of the plans