Enjeux et perspectives de la coopération transfrontaliere dans le domaine de l'amenagement du territoire : l'exemple de la Suisse romande

Cross-border cooperation exists in Europe since 1960, but it really started developing during the 1980 with the elaboration of the European outline convention of May 21st 1980 on transfrontier co-operation between territorial communities or authorities (Madrid convention), which was ratified by the Swiss government in 1982. As a result, a big number of cross-border organisations was created and started considerations and international projects - with more or less success. With the European initiative INTERREG (Switzerland participates since 1995) the international cooperation got a new impulse. A certain number of cross-border projects concerning the land use planning were started in the western part of Switzerland during the past few years, especially in the area of Geneva, in the Jurassic arc and between the Valais and the Valley of Aoste. Since the cross-border cooperation will be reinforced by the INTERREG III initiative which will be launched soon, a critical analysis of the experiences gather up to this day as well as a summary of unsolved questions seems necessary. Classification JEL : H77, O21, R52, R58.