Organized under the auspices of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the association Citรฉs Unies France, and the Ministry of Regional Development of the Russian Federation, the 4th French-Russian Meeting on decentralized cooperation will be held in Nice on December 14 and 15.
Dedicated to the development of territories and their attractiveness, this fourth edition follows the Meetings in Moscow in 2008, Saint Petersburg in 2009, and Strasbourg in 2010, which successively addressed cooperation in urban services, tourism, and innovation.
This new Meeting will focus on topics related to the attractiveness of the territory and urban development and the organization of major cultural, tourist, and sporting events, particularly in view of the Sochi Olympics in 2014, Euro 2016 in France, and the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
The French-Russian meetings were created in 2008 to encourage cooperation between French local authorities and Russian regions whose economic and intellectual potential is often unknown and underutilized. It aims to highlight existing exchanges between the authorities of the two countries in many fields of excellence and to develop new partnerships. Today, there are 49 French authorities engaged in 102 projects with 55 Russian authorities.
Today, the participation of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan and representatives from Novosibirsk, two regions particularly active in innovative technologies, is especially confirmed. Several mayors of large cities, including Yekaterinburg, Volgograd, Togliatti, and Vologda, and vice-governors of Nizhny Novgorod, the Altai Krai, and Krasnoyarsk have also confirmed their participation to exchange on urban development strategies. Nearly 20 Russian authorities will be represented at the highest level.
The French regions and local authorities are also mobilized for this event to exchange, or even export their expertise in territorial development and attractiveness to Russia. More than 20 French regions and communes have confirmed their participation, including Champagne-Ardenne, Franche-Comtรฉ, and the cities of Nice, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Marseille, Angoulรชme, Le Mans, Aix-en-Provence, Chartres…
