What opportunities and challenges do you come across as a transboundary organisation?
As a transboundary association, opportunities and challenges are mixed and frequently overlap. We are a great tourist destination, which creates a high level of exchange between France and Germany, but the cooperation between the two countries at a local level is still difficult. Some positive examples are now being seen in the form of our local transboundary markets. Here local farmers have the opportunity to sell their products to new customers and by doing so are bridging borders. Rhin Vivant also promotes new partnerships between the municipalities of France and Germany in the field of sustainable tourism development. We are trying to start a process which will encourage wider and longer collaboration in a region which was an area of conflict for centuries. Languages and legislations are probably our main current challenges: our experience is quite innovative in Europe and, in some ways, experimental.
