The mayor of Nice (Alpes-Maritimes) and the presidents of the Italian provinces of Imperia and Cuneo launched on Thursday a “Cross-border Alliance of the Southern Alps”, which aims to create a “Euroregion” accelerating common transport projects, health or ecological transition.
If cooperation between these territories is old, with the support of Marseille, Genoa and Turin, the regional capitals on which they depend, the Quirinal Treaty signed in 2021 between France and Italy now offers the legal framework for an association more concrete.
“We are a whole, equal”
, launched the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, during a presentation of the project at the town hall of Imperia, in the presence of elected officials from the different communities in the area and a representative of the Monegasque government which supported the project.
“We have ambitions in terms of economic growth, social cohesion and especially in the face of the climate issue which threatens both our mountains and our coastal areas
,” he added during a press briefing.
Like the Euroregion established on the border between France, Switzerland and Germany,
“we want to join forces”
to access better European funding, Christian Estrosi then explained.
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“Common living area”
Claudio Scajola, mayor of Imperia and president of the eponymous province, spoke of the ambition of a
“common living area”
, believing that institutions and connections were lagging behind the wishes of the populations concerned.
“Today, we planted a small seed [...] we affirmed that the three territories could become a true cross-border region
,” he underlined.
Christian Estrosi cited the example of the ongoing modernization of the Genoa-Ventimiglia railway line, which will soon put the Ligurian capital 1 hour 10 minutes from the French border, where you currently have to change trains.
A concrete objective of the alliance will be to validate a requalification of the 25 km of tracks between Ventimiglia and the large station under construction near Nice airport to put Genoa 1 hour 20 minutes from this international airport.
While expressing his enthusiasm for this initiative, Luca Robaldo, president of the province of Cuneo, however recalled that an agreement had already been concluded between the three cities in 1977, without many concrete results: the rail connections between them are slower today than they were then.