Last modified: 2025-01-04 by olivier touzeau
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![[Meuse-Rhine Euroregion]](../images/e/eu-greg.gif)
See also:
The Greater Region (German: Großregion, French: Grande Région,
Luxembourgish: Groussregioun), formerly also known as SaarLorLux, is a
euroregion of eleven regional authorities located in four European
states.
Member regions represent different political structures: the Walloon
region, the French-speaking and German-speaking Communities of Belgium; in the former
Lorraine part of French Region Grand Est, the French
departments Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse,
Moselle () and Vosges; the German states of
Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland; and the
Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg.
The history of the Greater Region as a cross-border political
cooperation area began with the founding of the European Coal and
Steel Community in 1951, whose functional heart was
primarily cross-border cooperation in the mining industry and thus the
goal of avoiding another war between the founding states. Lorraine,
Luxembourg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland in particular made a
significant contribution to Western European coal and steel production
at that time.
In March 1969, at the instigation of German Chancellor Kurt Georg
Kiesinger and French President Charles de Gaulle, a German-French
government commission was formed, which met for the first time in
February 1970 in Bonn to discuss the problems in the
German-French-Luxembourg mining triangle. The term Saar-Lor-Lux for
the border triangle goes back to Hubertus Rolshoven, the CEO of the
Saarbergwerke. At the 1971 government commission in Saarbrücken,
Luxembourg government representatives were present for the first time
and it was decided to set up a regional commission for
German-French-Luxembourg border affairs.
On October 16, 1980, the official foundation stone for the Greater Region was finally laid with a government agreement between the three countries. More precisely, the formation of a government and a regional commission SaarLorLux-Trier-Westpfalz was formalized for the first time. The agreement is the legal basis for cross-border cooperation between regional administrations and institutions to promote the economic, cultural, tourist and social development of the region. With the establishment of the Interregional Parliamentary Council in February 1986, a body was created in which representatives from all member parliaments can meet twice a year for a plenary session and make recommendations and statements for the development of the GreaterRegion.
The main political body, however, is the Summit of the Greater Region, which brings together representatives of the incumbent executive of the partner regions. The first summit took place in 1995 in Bad Mondorf, Luxembourg, in the historical context of the Treaty of Maastricht, which was the reason for the Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker and the Saarland Prime Minister Oskar Lafontaine to hold regular meetings at the highest political level. In 1996, the establishment of an advisory cross-border economic and social committee was decided. In 1999, a joint secretariat, the so-called House of the Greater Region, based in Luxembourg, was added, which bundles the administrative activities of the association.
On 23 May 2005, the Walloon Region, the French Community of Belgium
and the German-speaking Community joined the cooperation as full
members by signing a government agreement between the Belgian
government and the other three member states. At the same time, the
summit of the Greater Region was merged with the
SaarLorLux-Trier-Westpfalz Regional Commission. In 2013, the Summit Secretariat was founded as a European Grouping of
Territorial Cooperation to prepare the work of the Summit and ensure
the continuity of cooperation. In 2015, the House of the Greater
Region moved to Esch-sur-Alzette, where it now houses a total of nine
entities of the Greater Regional Cooperation with their offices and
business premises.
[source: official website]
Olivier Touzeau, 21 December 2024
The flag has an "azure mist" field with the curent logo, adopted in april 2022:
photo (2023), photo (2024),
where it can be seen with many white flags with logos of the member entities.
Olivier Touzeau, 21 December 2024