Great Area

The Grande Area is an entity gathering the Lorraine, the Luxembourg, the the Rhineland-Palatinat, the the Saar, the Walloon region, the French Community and the German-speaking Community of Belgium. It is located between the the Rhine, the the Moselle, the the Saar and the Meuse. The purpose of the Great Area is to improve the political, economic co-operation and the partnerships between the various actors. It is European Capitale of the culture 2007.

Figures

The total surface area of the Great Area is of 65  401 km ² with a population of roughly 11,3 million inhabitants. The crosses border dailies to work between the various areas is about 120.000 people including 75% for Luxembourg.

Since 2007, Interreg III is replaced by new “Objective 3: territorial co-operation in Europe” which continues until 2013.

History

Population

The Great Area currently counts 11  228  552 inhabitants divided in a very unequal way on its five components. More half of this population lives in the Rhineland-Palatinat and Wallonia. At Luxembourg, not only the smallest country of the European Union, but also one of its smaller areas, resides only 4% of the inhabitants of the Great Area.

More arrivals than of departures

In spite of the quasi-absence of big cities (Charleroi, with 202  000 inhabitants is the most populated commune), and the agglomeration of Metz (first urban unit of the great area with 430.000 inhabitants), the economic centers attract a big number of immigrants benefitting from the offer from employment from industry and the tertiary sector. Thus, the weak natural balance was largely compensated by an important migratory surplus, especially in Luxembourg, in the Rhineland-Palatinat and Wallonia. The Great Area is thus characterized by a cosmopolitan population, in particular in Luxembourg, but also in Wallonia.

And Future?

Projections of population announce a retreat of the population from approximately 2% until 2020. Veillissement will be accentuated. The share of more than 60 years, which constitute today a quarter of the population of transborder space, will exceed 33% in 2020.

Immigrants attracted by the centers of activity

Strong immigration within transborder space is unequally distributed. In Lorraine, the departures are more numerous than the arrivals. Only the zone of Toul, which profited from the periurbanisation of the zone from Nancy and the zone from Metz, escapes stagnation. The iron and steel basins of north and the rural areas of the Vosges, in the west Neufchâteau and the south Thillot, are touched by an important migratory deficit. In the Saar, where clear immigration remained modest, the newcomers avoid the agglomerations touched by the industrial decline. In Wallonia, the situation is extremely mitigated. Immigration concentrates around the axis which constitutes the Luxembourg-Brussels highway, a zone where economic development is favorable. The economic poles of the Rhineland-Palatinat, and in particular the axis which connects Kreis Ahrweiler/Neuwied/Westerwald with Hunsrück while following the course of the Rhine, benefitted largely from the arrival from Ûber and Aussiedler of the old areas of the east. The only exception is the town of Pirmasens, where the decline of the industry of leather, is at the origin of a negative rate. The attraction of Luxembourg is maintained. After the spectacular surge with the beginning of the year 1970, clear immigration currently preserves a very high level. Only the cities (Luxembourg-city and the Esch-on-Alzette) post negative movements, for the benefit of the périurbaines communes. In north, the rural migration is braked and leaves the place to a positive balance.

Teaching

The school population, evaluated on the basis of number of pupils registered in the educational establishments of the five areas, dropped between 1980 and 1995 from approximately 10%, that is to say less than the population of reference of the 5-24 years.

After a decrease during the time 1985-1990, the number of pupils of the primary education goes up. Secondary education counts pupils less and less. On the other hand, the global manpower of the higher education of the Great Area is in Net increase compared to the evolution in the population in reference.

Employment

In 2000, the number of credits lying in the Great Area rises with 5  036  000. Since 1970 it increased by 960  000 units. The increase in employment offered, unequally distributed on the territory, was not sufficient to absorb this volume of new credits. The rates of insertion (report/ratio of the credits occupied on the total credits), according to the areas, fluctuate into 2000 of 84% in Wallonia with 96% in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The alternating migrations transborder, supported by the installation of an EU law progressed. In 2000,120.000 inhabitants the internal borders of the Great Area cross, in direction very often of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. But the number of without employment did not cease increasing. The rise of unemployment is a manifestation of the deep modifications which have affected the operation of the job market: fast and major change of the economy, related on the technological upheavals and the universalization of the exchanges, time of adaptability of labor, qualitative and quantitative inadequacy between supply and. The unequal distribution of employment between territories (have regard to the importance of the credits), is also accompanied by a geographical concentration of employment in some pole of activity which them also will generate important intra-regional movements between place of residence and work place.

The statistical devices in the five territories do not make it possible to evaluate the offer of employment on a fine geographical level. However the imbalance noted for a geographical space given between the number of credits which there work and that of the residents constitutes a first approach for the localization of the poles of activities. Independently of the frontier phenomenon, the poles of employment of the residents of each territory of the Great Area, are at the same time more numerous and of more important size in Germany. Stadtverband of Saarbrucken point of disjunction almost twice more credits resident. But in the Rhineland-Palatinat, Ludwigshafen, Mainz, Kaiserslautern, Koblenz, Trier are also centres of attraction where go 70  000 with 80  000 credits.

See too

Internal bonds

External bonds

  • Official site
  • Official site of the statistics of the Great Area
  • Site of the cultural routes in the Great Area

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