At the centre of Franco-German friendship

After 1945, the city became the symbol par excellence of the reconciliation between the two countries. This is why the City was chosen by the Europeans as the seat of three institutions: the Council of Europe (since 1949), the European Court of Human Rights (since 1959) and the European Parliament (since 1979).

This Franco-German friendship is also reflected in:

> the importance of the economic, human and cultural cross-border exchanges: Germany is the Bas-Rhin’s leading trading partner (exports: almost 5 billion €; imports: over 6 billion – figures for 2008); over 25,000 people from the Bas- Rhin, including Strasbourg, work in Germany. Finally, the presence of the Franco-German cultural television Arte channel in Strasbourg should be emphasized

> the vast urban development operation in progress on the approach to the banks of the Rhine and the city of Kehl in Germany: turning its back on the border, for a long time Strasbourg directed its expansion towards the north, south and west. Today, the city is developing along the Route Nationale 4, the road linking France to Germany over the Rhine and is urbanizing an area of 250 hectares, a former industrial site close to the river port

> the Pont de l’Europe bridge, built in 1960, which enables vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians to cross the Rhine between Strasbourg and Kehl, over a length of about 300 m. A daily count carried out in December 2008 indicated that over 41,000 vehicles can cross this bridge in one day. A second bridge was opened to traffic in 2002

> the Passerelle des Deux Rives footbridge, with its elegant suspended architecture, has straddled a vast 60-hectare park situated on both banks of the Rhine since 2004. It is the work of French architect Marc Mimram (born in Paris in 1955), whilst the green spaces were designed by the German landscape gardener Rüdiger Brosk, from Essen. 177 metres long, the bridge connects one bank to the other in a continuity that is both tangible and symbolic and which stands for the abolition of all borders, geographical and human

> the progress of the Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau towards the establishment of a new form of crossborder governance, modelled on the example of Washington DC. Created in 2005, this European territory with a special status is seen as the future laboratory of an advanced form of Franco-German cooperation, which in time would allow for joint decision-making, the pooling of services and public investments.
This territory, which unites the 28 municipal authorities in the Urban Community of Strasbourg and the Ortenaukreis (which includes the cities of Kehl, Offenburg, Oberkirch, Lahr and Achern) covers a surface area of over 2,000 km² with a population of almost a million. It was granted the legal status of a “European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation” (EGTC) last March, the first step on the way to the realization of a multitude of projects. Strasbourg’s European dimension should be reinforced by this initiative and people’s daily lives facilitated considerably.

Already, a joint teaching programme has been introduced and closer cooperation is being organized between Strasbourg’s university hospitals and the Kork Epilepsy centre concerning epilepsy care. German emergency vehicles have the same priority rights in the Strasbourg urban area as local ambulances. Since 1 January 2009, the French residents of the Ortenaukreis have been able to obtain their identity papers from the Town Hall in Strasbourg and no longer from the French Consulate in Munich. There are also plans to extend the Strasbourg tram system to Kehl in the next few years.