The year 2024 marked the tenth anniversary of the term of office begun by Anne Grommerch, who died in office in April 2016. She was succeeded by Pierre Cuny, a doctor by training. In 2026, at the next municipal elections, the mayor of Thionville, who is also chairman of the conurbation and a departmental councillor, is not ruling out a new term of office, but says he is still considering his decision, which will probably be known this summer. In the meantime, as he addressed his best wishes to the population on Monday evening, he described 2025 as a pivotal year for the future of the region.
Of course, the councillor was delighted with the latest projects, which had already been mentioned in September. There was indeed the Passerelle de l’Europe, the revitalisation of the town centre with the vacancy rate for commercial premises down from 23% to 8% since 2014, the opening of the Spot dedicated to sport and . This will be officially active starting 1 January 2026 and should help to instil greater equity in the area for the benefit of residents, but it will also help to redraw the balance of power politically, from a cross-border perspective.
After ten years of municipal action, Cuny, although he says he “has not decided to stand for re-election,” says he wants to look to the future. He has two major objectives. One is to further increase the town’s population (which stood at 44,000 in 2024), with a target of 400 to 500 new residents per year by 2035. The second is to make Thionville, which he describes as a European city, “a place for experimenting with what can be done in Europe today,” particularly on cross-border issues.
This is also one of the goals of the merger of the two conurbations agreed in 2024 and which will have a total population of 157,000. In the meantime, the elected representatives of the two conurbations will be working to prepare for this merger in order to build a conurbation that will have more clout to take forward certain issues. “This large conurbation will oblige us to achieve results, and to fulfil our obligations to our fellow citizens, particularly to cross-border commuters in areas such as transport and mobility, where a great deal is already happening,” emphasised the mayor.
Beyond mobility
Cuny also mentioned the mobility projects that are about to come to fruition and that could be of interest to cross-border commuters, such as the silo car park, known as the Joseph-Bech car park, near the station. It has 750 spaces, including 500 for train users, and is 50% co-financed by Luxembourg. The car park, whose , will be inaugurated in June.
The two nearby bridges, the De Gasperi bridge over the railway tracks and the Adenauer bridge over the Moselle, will also be inaugurated in June, and will be used for the future Bus à haut niveau de service (BHNS) and soft mobility. “Together with the BRT, they will help to speed up the mobility offer and serve the station. To create a whole new mobility system around Thionville station. With the increase in the frequency of trains planned by the region, the station will also see its number of passengers per day rise from 4,000 to 8,000,” predicts Cuny, who reiterated his two major proposals in the cross-border debate: the remainder of the cost of the residential economy to be borne by Luxembourg, and in terms of health services.
Our region must be a showcase, a place for experimentation and for modelling what is happening in Europe.
His idea, , involves, for example, charging cross-border commuters who consult their doctor in France the Luxembourg rate, or having Luxembourg pay the remaining costs of certain services such as crèches. For this last proposal, the mayor suggests that Luxembourg contribute €1.5m a year.
Experiment
It is in these areas that the mayor wants to turn the region into a laboratory for experimentation and make constructive use of the “fraternal relationship” with Luxembourg. “If we have to change European law, let’s change it. Our region should be a showcase, a place for experimentation, for modelling what is happening in Europe. We are at the crossroads of four countries. In Europe, there are 40 places in the same situation, on the borders of three or four countries, and some of them are at a less advanced stage than we are. We’re in a very specific area, with an international reach, and that’s an opportunity to move things forward,” he said.
Cuny also said he was in favour of to create a Franco-Luxembourg cross-border cooperation fund (FCT), submitted to the French Senate on 10 January. “He was inspired by a proposal I made at the time on the subject of teleworking. We were a pilot territory in this area, and the idea was to neutralise taxation and for both Luxembourg and France to contribute to this fund, which would enable projects to be co-financed.”
Except the framework for discussing these cross-border projects and positioning itself as a future laboratory is compromised by the political situation in France. These issues will have to be discussed at the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC), whose next meeting has still not been scheduled. “We don’t know when it will take place, because we need to know when we will have a government that is fit for purpose,” said Cuny.
The region also contributes to the Mission opérationnelle transfrontalière (MOT), of which Cuny is vice-chairman. “In France, there are also seven cross-border regions like ours. The most advanced, the most integrated and the most developed is the one between the Genevois and Haute-Savoie regions. At our level, we are considered to be the second most advanced region in terms of dialogue with our neighbours,” he said with satisfaction.
This article was originally published in .