Saar Lor Lux - Problems of Cooperation

Problems of Cooperation

The members have different forms of organisation and structure and varying levels of decision making power. The partners face different problems, although they all share problems resulting from the changing economic structure of the region. In all parts of SaarLorLux, coal mines and steelworks are closed or will be closed. While facing the same problem, member states did not create a shared solution, but reacted independently. While Luxembourg was very successful in recreating its economy by changing the structure to secondary industries, especially the banking sector, and Lorraine has tried to take a similar line, the German states and Wallonia tried to preserve their old industries and but failed.

This lack of cooperation is not based on a lack of will. In some instances, there is no political power to make the decision to co-operate. The only partner with complete power is Luxembourg, represented by its prime minister. All other members that share the summit table have only limited power. For decisions, they have to consult their central or federal governments in Brussels, Paris and Berlin. Many of the decisions of the Summit are nothing but a declaration of the goodwill of the participants.

Administrative structures vany among the different countries represented in SaarLorLux. French villages may only have a hundred inhabitants and a constant need to clear decisions with a higher level of government. German community associations of several districts with thousands of inhabitants have constitutional rights of self-government.

The members of SaarLorLux face the same problems. The economy of all members was founded on coal mining and steelworks. Now, they are all trying to perform the same structural change. Because the economic structures resemble each other so closely, there is little possibility for differentiation of fields of activity to complement one another. With the exception of Luxembourg, the citizens of SaarLorLux do not speak the other languages of the region. The main foreign language spoken is English. About 120,000 people cross the borders to work in another country. 90,000 of these work in Luxembourg. This is the result of an enormous difference in living standards. These differences in wealth complicate the search for solutions to shared problems. Many citizens of the regions are not aware of SaarLorLux. For a citizen of the town of Tournai, in the west of Wallonia, the nearest neighbouring region of SaarLorLux is about two hundred kilometres away. For him, the nearest European neighbour is the French region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, five kilometres away.The same situation exists for the region of Mainz in the east of Rhineland Palatinate, which is part of the Rhein Main area and the southern départements of Lorraine. The region seems to be too big to form a common identity for all.