Cities Network of the Upper Rhine

The diversity of the Upper Rhine area makes it necessary for various institutions within the region to deal with the cross-border cooperations. These can be composed of partners that are also represented in other bodies, but still serve another specific purpose.

Sustainable mobility is a key issue in the city network (in the photo: an electric scooter).

A section of the cooperation focuses on the Cities Netwwork of the Upper Rhine, which has been going since 2002. It is committed to engaging the special interests of the larger Upper Rhine cities in the tri-national collaboration, and pooling their joint opportunities for this purpose. The joint strategy paper focuses on the areas of education and science, forms of city mobility, sustainable urban development and cooperation in the areas of culture and tourism.

Platform of the cities

The cities of Baden-Baden, Basel, Colmar, Freiburg, Lahr, Landau, Lörrach, Karlsruhe, Mulhouse, Offenburg and Strasbourg are all involved in this informal exchange platform. The highest regional authorities and representatives of the respective cities meet on a regular basis. But the informal network does not have a permanent secretariat. Instead, the organisation of the meetings and agendas are coordinated by the administrations of the cities.

The Cities Network is also represented in the Tri-national Metropolitan Upper Rhine (TMO), where it introduces the interests of the cities within the political pillar and attempts to promote common priorities and initiatives.

The President of the Government of the Canton of Basel-Stadt uses regular trilateral meetings with the city leaders from Mulhouse and Freiburg as a further vehicle for discussions with city partners in the Upper Rhine region.