Breaking bread across borders: a case study on the efficiency of the interregional educational network between France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany

Abstract: Cross-border cooperation is growing mostly thanks to incentives in the form of funding under the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) and its Interreg programme also called European Territorial Cooperation (ETC). This funding and support under EU cohesion policy, aims at reducing the economic, social and territorial disparities between the EU regions rather than between EU countries. The deepening of European integration on the ground may however be facing obstacles inherent to each country’s specificities Examples include form of government, socioeconomic conditions, political and legal framework. This paper is about cooperation in education in one of the established European cross-border regions called Greater Region (GR), which is an area stretching from Luxembourg, France (Grand Est Region), Belgium (Wallonia region, French community  and German-speaking community of Belgium) and Germany (Rhine-Palatinate and Saarland). The interregional cooperation in education in the GR is framed under Interreg VA and takes shape through cross-border projects and educational networks. These projects are jointly defined by partners from across the Greater region, to achieve the European educational objectives Horizon 2020. This paper will study a cross-border project and its networks in education and within the GR. The research will be conceptualised in multilevel governance (MLG). MLG supposes different levels of interaction, cooperation and networking between different levels of supranational, national and subnational authorities as well as public and private entities in decision-making process. A case study of the cross-border project Sesam’GR, monitored by Interreg VA GR, was chosen. The case study uses interviews as a research method to uncover the inherent obstacles and proposed solutions in such a European border region setting. The study is important in the general scheme of the EU overall integration project and for any existing and future educational projects and networks in particular. The GR lies at the geographic heart of the EU which includes four of its founding member countries. Sesam’GR project is by far the largest educational project in terms of finance and scale within Interreg. By the time the project has reached its end, there are positive indications that will set in motions other projects and will trigger an expansion and multiplication of networks despite the intrinsic challenges grounded in multi-level governance.