Cooperation in the tri-national agglomeration

For the canton of Basel-Stadt as its centre and with 100,000 commuters crossing from France and Germany into Basel every day, cross-border cooperation is a self-evident fact. Clearly, a unilateral approach to matters such as regional planning and the associated transport and traffic policy is unthinkable without the involvement of all three national partners. A landmark of this approach is the EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg, Europe’s only airport shared between two countries (1949 interstate treaty).

But even in everyday matters, the borders of this functional area are becoming increasingly blurred for the some 850,000 residents of the agglomeration. So, many commute over the borders to go to work or to spend their free time on a tri-national basis by visiting the sights of the neighbouring country or enjoying their cultural and commercial highlights. The coronavirus crisis in particular has again highlighted the diverse cross-border networking: temporarily closed or restricted border crossings have made various otherwise everyday situations more difficult or even impossible. The fact that these initial problems were subsequently alleviated or completely resolved was partly due to the canton's long-standing good relations with surrounding partners.