Welcome to Elien Declercq, the new Director of the Eurometropolis Agency!

Hello Elien, and welcome to the Eurometropolis Agency team! First of all, can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit more about your background?
I'm passionate about intercultural relations and our cross-border region, and I've built my professional career around Franco-Belgian cooperation, from different angles and in different roles.

After studying Romance languages and literature at the Universities of Louvain and Salamanca, I returned to Courtrai to devote four years to a doctoral thesis on Belgian immigration to Lille, Roubaix and Tourcoing. As well as researching and supervising students, I helped to set up the Centre for the History of Intercultural Relations, a new interdisciplinary research centre. Thanks to numerous meetings in the field in the north of France and by taking part in international colloquia, I was quickly able to establish a network of partners for the benefit of this Centre.

It was precisely the building of partnerships that appealed to me most and that prompted me, after obtaining a doctorate followed by a post-doctorate, to leave the academic world and put my knowledge of the border region at the service of Franco-Belgian cooperation.

As a project manager for cross-border cooperation within the Department of the Economy and European and International Relations of the Province of West Flanders, I developed a vast network bringing together players from different levels of government in Belgium and France, European programmes and international cooperation structures.

What motivated you to take on the management of the Eurometropole Agency?
I applied because I really want to motivate and inspire a team to get things moving in Franco-Belgian cross-border cooperation. I wanted to put my knowledge and experience at the service of the Eurometropolis.

My heart has always been in international relations and cross-border cooperation, from my foreign language studies, my position at university and my position with the Province of West Flanders, where I have always had excellent cooperation with French and Walloon partners. We've built some great projects together.

And even in my family life, the cross-border region is omnipresent: I live in the Flemish part of the Eurometropolis territory, but we like to go to the zoo and the natural history museum in Lille and Wallonia-Picardy, to walk in nature.

What is your vision for the Eurometropole in the coming years?
The Eurometropolis is the first formal multi-level (all levels of government in the two countries are represented) and multi-stakeholder (citizens, mayors, partners, civil society, Europe, etc.) forum for cross-border cooperation in the European Union. I would really like to emphasise this partnership dynamic. It is important to emphasise that together we can go further.

Faced with the rise of extremes in Europe, how should the Eurometropolis react and adapt?
In these times of polycrisis, a return to the border and growing euroscepticism, it is all the more important to demonstrate the added value of cross-border cooperation and cooperation between European neighbours. The Eurometropolis must strengthen cooperation and create cohesion in a cross-border territory full of challenges. Cross-border cooperation cannot be taken for granted; it is an ongoing process. I would really like to contribute to it.

Photo copyright: Département du Nord (lampla)