Who are we?

A metropolis of European standing

Created on 28 January 2008, the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis is a European Territorial Cooperation Group. It brings together 147 French and Belgian communes.

The Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis is the first European Territorial Cooperation Group. With a bi-national and tri-cultural territory covering 3,550 km2, populated with more than two million inhabitants, it is the largest cross-border metropolis in Europe.
A cooperation structure, the Eurometropolis brings together 14 institutions who have decided to work together to support and promote cross-border, trans-national and inter-regional cooperation. The ambition is to do away with cultural, political and administrative borders in order to make this diversity a plus and, above all, to make the daily lives of Eurometropolitans easier.

Effective and coherent cross-border cooperation 

The 14 institutions, who together decided on the creation of the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis, share one objective: to strengthen all aspects of cooperation within the territory. Individuals from France, Flanders and Wallonia thus join forces to initiate and support the realisation of common interest projects together. These cover varied areas: transport, tourism, the environment, etc.

Six cooperation bodies have been set up within Eurométropole: The Presidency, the Assembly, the Board, the Cross-Border Agency, the Thematic Working Groups and the Conference of Mayors and Burgomasters. Aware of the regions cultural particularity, the Eurometropolis has adopted two fundamental operating principles. Firstly, each body respects the double parity between France and Belgium and hence between French-speaking and Dutch-speaking individuals. Finally, the application of bilingualism is guaranteed.