The administrative agreement on the functional area was signed as part of the opening ceremony for the "Vita Romana" in the European Cultural Park in Reinheim. They were signed by Christiane Fortuin, Director of the Managing Authority of the European Interreg Greater Region Programme, District Administrator Dr Theophil Gallo, Chairman of the Franco-German association "VITA FUTURA Bliesbruck-Reinheim" and Gilbert Schuh, Vice-President of the Moselle Department, representing the President Patrick Weiten, Vice-President of the "VITA FUTURA" association.
The Bliesbruck-Reinheim European Cultural Park is an important symbol of the intensive cooperation between the Saarpfalz district and the Département de la Moselle. To further promote Franco-German cooperation at local level, the Franco-German association VITA FUTURA Bliesbruck-Reinheim was founded on 15 September 2022 with partners from France and Germany.
In a further step, the area around the European Cultural Park, i.e. all municipalities of the Communauté d'Agglomération Sarreguemines Confluences and the Saarpfalz district, has now been officially designated as a so-called functional area. The objectives and tasks of the functional area are set out in the signed administrative agreement.
What is a functional space?
In simple terms, a functional area is a local, structured cross-border area. The functional area is a novelty in the European funding programme Interreg VI A Greater Region 2021-2027, which in turn has ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) funding to finance projects that make the Greater Region greener, more social and closer to its citizens and enable better governance.
For the first time, more than a quarter of the budget was dedicated to funding the "functional areas" and their projects. This will enable a total of nine functional areas to finance Interreg projects in their area, which will consequently contribute to the implementation of their strategy.
The Franco-German area of the Bliesbruck-Reinheim European Cultural Park has been recognised as one of these functional areas and, within this framework, has access to 1.9 million euros from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Union to implement its strategy.
The strategy of the functional area of the European Cultural Park is based on seven thematic areas: Land management, ecology & sustainability, science & research, strengthening the involvement of and cooperation with local stakeholders, cultural tourism (expansion of offerings), marketing & communication and the creation of a model project for Franco-German cooperation.
District Administrator Dr Theophil Gallo: "Through the functional area, we are now expanding our financial scope for action to implement concrete projects. We are already very excited about the future project proposals that will contribute to the realisation of the functional area strategy of the Franco-German area of the European Cultural Park. The realisation of this project is another important step towards real European cooperation between our two regions, embedded in the idea of the Weimar Triangle, which will have existed for 33 years on 28 August 2024, and also in the spirit of Robert Schumann's idea, the value and importance of which we must be aware of today."
The call for projects for the functional area of the Bliesbruck-Reinheim European Cultural Park started on 1 September. Until 31 July 2026, projects that serve the strategy and the area of the functional space can be submitted on an ongoing basis via JEMS, the online portal for submitting applications, reporting, accounting and monitoring Interreg projects. Information on this can be found on the website www.europäischer-kulturpark.de under the heading "Functional area".