Beyond the usual skills that fall to the departments, the CEA will strive to facilitate, strengthen and develop cross-border cooperation with our German and Swiss neighbors, but also to establish links with the Grand-Est region. It thus becomes a “model” for other French regions in terms of cross-border cooperation. The idea is to promote the influence of the territory internationally, its identity, to strengthen bilingualism and regional culture by improving the training offer for young people. For example, it could recruit French-German speakers. Bilingualism but also tourism. The objective is to enhance the heritage, with the other partners, whether institutional or private, on both sides of the Rhine and to forge economic links in this sector which offers employment.
But among the first major projects of the CEA, the transfer by ‘State since January 1 of non-licensed roads and highways, which represents approximately 190 kilometers of asphalt including the A 32 which crosses all of Alsace. Either the management of a total of 6. 300 km of roads and highways. A responsibility that requires it to quickly make key strategic choices on mobility while at the same time the Western Bypass of Strasbourg (COS) looms. Choices that will necessarily have a concrete impact on road traffic, especially heavy goods vehicles. The CEA, for example, obtains the possibility of setting up a fee for the latter, a kind of “ecotax” without naming it.
Next step, the choice of the seat and the election of 35 councilors from Alsace, probably in June. A question that could already strain the debates because Mulhouse and Colmar also claim the new instance. In the meantime, on an order