Greater Region

SaarLorLux or Saar-Lor-Lux (also ''SarLorLux'' in French), a portmanteau of five regional authorities located in four European states. The term has also been applied to cooperations of several of these authorities or of their subdivisions, administrations, organisations, clubs and people. Member regions represent different political structures: the sovereign state of Luxembourg; Belgium's Walloon region, comprising the French and German speaking parts of Belgium; Lorraine, a region of France; the French départements Moselle and Meurthe-et-Moselle; and the German federated states of Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate.

There is no well-defined structure of SaarLorLux nor even an exclusive definition of its size. Instead, there exist multiple forms of cooperation and contractual relations among all or several members. Sometimes instead of SaarLorLux, the term Greater Region is used, short for the more formal "Greater Region of Saarland, Lorraine, Luxembourg, Wallonia and (Western-) Rhineland-Palatinate".

Member regions

Shared history

The region of SaarLorLux was settled by the Celtic tribes of the Treveri and Mediomatrici. The Treveri lived in the south of Belgium, Luxembourg, western Rhineland-Palatinate, and northern Saarland. Lorraine and the southern Saarland were inhabited by the Mediomatrici.

Both tribes were conquered during the Gallic Wars by the Roman legions of Julius Caesar. The area became part of the Roman provinces of Gallia Belgica, Germania Superior, and Germania Inferior.

Barbarian invasions forced the enfeebled Roman Empire to abandon possession of the area in the fifth century. The region became a part of the Frankish Empire. After the death of Louis the Pious in 840, the Carolingians adhered to the Germanic custom of partible inheritance, and the Treaty of Verdun in 843 divided the empire into three. Louis's eldest surviving son Lothair I became Emperor of the Romans and ruler of Middle Francia. His three sons in turn divided this kingdom between them into Lotharingia, Burgundy and the Kingdom of Italy (which covered the northern part of the Italian peninsula). The core area of SaarLorLux lies within the borders of Lotharingia. The struggle to gain control over Lotharingia was the cause of centuries of struggle and war between the two other Franconian kingdoms (West and East Francia), which over time evolved into the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire (the predecessor of subsequent German states), with the Holy Roman Empire ultimately gaining control until the 18th century.

From 1384, the then Duchy of Luxembourg and part of Wallonia formed part of what was known as the Burgundian Netherlands, which was inherited by the house of Habsburg in 1482, becoming the Habsburg Netherlands. Although still subject to the Holy Roman Emperor, the Habsburg Netherlands were inherited by Habsburg Spain in 1556 and ruled in a personal union until 1714; thereafter it was ruled by the Austrian Habsburg monarchy, the rulers of which were also the Holy Roman Emperors. The remainder of Wallonia formed part of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, while much of what would become Rhineland-Palatinate was part of the Palatinate, which came under Bavarian control in 1777. Upper Lotharingia evolved into the Duchy of Lorraine while several smaller states came and went over the centuries.

In 1766 the Duchy of Lorraine and most of the surrounding smaller states were annexed by France, leaving the County of Salm and a few exclaves of other HRE states as the only territory within the modern region of Lorraine under Imperial rule. In 1793 Salm was annexed, followed in 1794 by the Southern Netherlands (including Luxembourg and Wallonia). Over the course of the Napoleonic Wars, the remainder of the region west of the Rhine (plus Katzenelnbogen, which lies to the east of the Rhine) was annexed to the newly formed French Empire; the rest of modern Rhineland-Palatinate east of the Rhine became part of the Duchy of Nassau (formed from the merger of Nassau-Usingen and Nassau-Weilburg lands), which was a member of Napoleon's puppet Confederation of the Rhine. The wars also saw an end to the Holy Roman Empire.

Following Napoleon's defeat, the Congress of Vienna granted most of the Southern Netherlands, including Wallonia, to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Luxembourg was placed in a personal union under the Dutch crown but also made subject to the Holy Roman Empire's successor: the German Confederation. Most of what would become the Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate was split between the Kingdoms of Bavaria and Prussia (also within the German Confederation); the eastern portion of Luxembourg was also ceded to Prussia. The only other states to remain in the region were part of the Grand Duchy of Hesse ( Rhenish Hesse), Hesse-Homburg (which was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Hesse in 1866), the Principality of Lichtenberg (which was sold to Prussia in 1834), the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg and the Duchy of Nassau (which was annexed by Prussia in 1866). The Lorraine region remained in French hands.

In 1830, as a result of the Belgian Revolution, the Kingdom of Belgium declared independence from the Netherlands and also ''de facto'' annexed the French-speaking portion of Luxembourg (around of its area at that time). This was later recognised in the Treaty of London (1839).

As a result of these events, the inhabitants of the region were on different sides in the Franco Prussian War of 1870–71, which ultimately led to the founding of the German Empire. The new Empire also annexed of part of Lorraine, as well as neighbouring Alsace, as the Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine. Following World War I, this territory was ceded back to France in the Treaty of Versailles, while the ''Saargebiet'', an area roughly co-extensive with the modern Saarland, was placed under joint British and French control until 1935. Prior to World War II the region was divided by the fortifications of the Maginot line and the Westwall. After World War II, the Saar Protectorate was established under French control until 1957, when it was reunited with (West) Germany, forming the modern state. A small area of Germany adjoining Rhineland-Palatinate was also ceded to Belgium, which was incorporated into Wallonia as the German-speaking community of Belgium.

Today, the greater region is situated along both sides of the border between speakers of the German and French languages. 11,182,975 people live in an area of about 65,400 km². Situated in the center of the European Union, it contains highly populated urban sections along the rivers. These areas include industries, especially mining and steelworking. Rural areas are dominated by agriculture.

Luxembourg

Luxembourg is a sovereign nation with full autonomy. Each of the four départements of the French region of Lorraine is twice the size of the whole nation of Luxembourg.

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has a population of 476,187 people in an area of 2586 square kilometres (998 sq mi).

Luxembourg is a parliamentary representative democracy with a constitutional monarchy, ruled by a Grand Duke. It is the world's only sovereign Grand Duchy. The country has a highly developed economy, with the highest Gross Domestic Product per capita in the world.

The city of Luxembourg, the capital and largest city, is the seat of several institutions and agencies of the European Union. Luxembourg lies on the cultural divide between Romantic Europe and Germanic Europe, borrowing customs from each of the distinct traditions. Luxembourg is a trilingual country; French, German, and Luxembourgish are official languages. Although a secular state, Luxembourg is predominantly Roman Catholic.

Until 1867, the city of Luxembourg, the Gibraltar of the north, was a federal fortress of the German confederation. In the 20th century, Luxembourg was twice occupied by German armies.
In the middle of the 20th century, the economy of Luxembourg was dominated by the iron and steel industries.
Then, a structural change took place, which transformed the country to an international financial center with more than 200 banks and over 800 financial institutions and insurance companies, generating more than 20% of the GNP of Luxembourg. Today about 66% of workers are employed in the service sector, and less than 2% work in the steel industry.

Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate

The German states of Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate are part of the federal system of Germany. They hold far-ranging authorities, although some decisions concerning international treaties are assigned to the federal government.

Saarland

Saarland is one of the 16 states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1.051 million inhabitants. In both area and population it is the smallest of the German ''Flächenländer'' ("area states"), i.e., those that are not City States (Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg).

It is named after the Saar River, which is a tributary of the Moselle River (a Rhine tributary) which runs through the state from the south to the northwest. One third of the land area of the Saarland is covered by forest, one of highest percentages in Germany. The state is generally hilly; the highest mountain is the Dollberg with a height of .

Most inhabitants live in a city agglomeration on the French border that includes the capital of Saarbrücken.

In 1919, Saarland was created from the communes where the steelworks and coal mines were located and the associated workers lived.
From 1920 to 1935 and from 1947 to 1956, Saarland was economically affiliated with France.
In 1957, 65,000 persons were employed in 18 coal mines, by 2006 only 6,300 in one mine remained. A comparable process happened with the steelworks.

Rhineland-Palatinate

Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 Bundesländer (federal states) of Germany. It has an area of 19,846 km² and about 4.048 million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. The federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate was established on 30 August 1946.

The main axis of the state is the Rhine river that forms the border with Baden-Württemberg and Hesse in the southeast before running across the northern part of Rhineland-Palatinate. The Rhine Valley is bounded by mountain chains and forms a landscape containing some of the most historically significant places in Germany.

The Eifel and Hunsrück mountain chains are found on the west bank of the Rhine in northern Rhineland-Palatinate, while the Westerwald and Taunus mountains are found on the east bank. The hilly land in the southernmost region of the state is called the Palatinate forest (''Pfälzerwald'').

These mountain chains are separated from each other by tributaries of the Rhine: the Moselle (''Mosel''), the Lahn and the Nahe.

Economically prosperous zones exist along the eastern borders, while in the western part of the state, there are structurally backward, rural regions.

Lorraine

Until 2016, Lorraine was one of the 26 ''régions'' of France. Its two main cities are Metz (administrative capital) and Nancy. The region's name is derived from the medieval Lotharingia.

Lorraine consists of four départements, Moselle, Meurthe et Moselle. Each of them is as big as Luxembourg and the Saarland together. Two of these départements, Vosges in the south and Meuse in the west, only have small interests in the SaarLorLux region, because they are far away from the shared border. Together, they have a population of about 2.338 million people on 23,547 km².
Lorraine is part of the centralised administrative system of France. Therefore, many of the decisions necessary for cooperation in the SaarLorLux region have to be cleared through the central government in Paris.

The current ''région'' of Lorraine is larger than the historical duchy of Lorraine which gradually came under French sovereignty between 1737 and 1766. The modern ''région'' includes provinces and areas that were historically separate from the duchy of Lorraine proper. These are:
* Barrois
* Three Bishoprics
* several small principalities which were still part of the Holy Roman Empire at the time of the French Revolution.

Lorraine borders the French regions of Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Franche-Comté. The location of Lorraine led to it being seen as a strategic asset. As the crossroads of four nations, it had a very important role in European affairs. Lorraine has many rivers running through it, which include the Rhine, Moselle, Meurthe, and Meuse.

From 1871 to 1918 and during World War II, the Moselle department, then known as Lothringen (German for ''Lorraine''), was part of Germany. During the last 40 years, most jobs in the formerly dominant industries of steelworking, coal mining and textiles were lost.

Wallonia

Wallonia with its five provinces and two communities has far reaching competencies in relation to economics, infrastructure, regional planning and foreign trade.

Wallonia occupies the southern part of Belgium. It has an area of 16 844 km² (55.18% of Belgium) with 3.436 million inhabitants and comprises the following provinces:
* Hainaut
* Liège
* Luxembourg
* Namur
* Walloon Brabant

French is the official language in most municipalities. German (with facilities for speakers of French) is the official language in nine eastern municipalities which belonged to Germany until 1918 and now form the German-speaking Community of Belgium. Several French-speaking municipalities have facilities in Dutch or German (or both). In a survey conducted by the Universite Catholique de Louvain in Louvain-La-Neuve and published in June 2006, only 19% of Walloons stated that they were able to speak Dutch. In contrast, 59% of respondents from the Flemish Community claimed to speak French. During the seventies the number of jobs in coal mines and steelworks was reduced from 135,000 to 35,000 today. Therefore, the region partially depends upon federal subsidies, including from Flanders, Belgium's most inhabited region. Steelwork is today still important in the region.

Development of cooperation

The beginnings of SaarLorLux

Founding members of the SaarLorLux region are the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the German federated state Saarland and the French region of Lorraine. This classic Saar Lor Lux region spreads over an area of 36,700 km² with about 4.7 million inhabitants.

The term ''Saar-Lor-Lux'' was coined in 1969 by Dr. Hubertus Rolshoven, founding president or the IRI ("Institut Régional Intracommunautaire", now " Institute of the Greater Region") and president of Saarberg, the former organisation of coal mines in the Saarland. The term recalls the close historical and economic ties among the coal mines and steelworks of Saarland, Lorraine and Luxembourg, creating a unified economic region.

Facing the same severe economic problems of a crisis in the steel and coal industries, the partners began informal talks, discussing how to solve the shared problems and how to improve the region. In the 1970s, these talks began to be more formalised, when official governmental commissions, first between France and Germany only, then including Luxembourg, began their work.

The formal founding act of SaarLorLux was an agreement between the governments of the French Republic (République française), the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (Grand-Duché de Luxembourg) concerning collaboration in the border regions, made on 16 October 1980. This agreement is the legal base of a boundary-crossing cooperation of administrations and institutions to promote the economic, cultural, touristic and social development of the region.

Enlargement of the membership

The treaties and agreements of SaarLorLux

Step by step, the cooperation originally exclusive to Saarland, Lorraine and Luxembourg was developed to include the Greater Region of Saarland, Lorraine, Luxembourg, Wallonia and the French-speaking Belgians, the German-speaking Belgians and the German state of Rhineland Palatinate. There was no formal process of enlargement that included new regions in all aspects of cooperation in SaarLorLux. The new members did not enter every instrument of collaboration; they only joined single treaties or aspects of cooperation.

Therefore, there is not one all embracing structure any more. Now, there are different bilateral and multilateral treaties among different members, creating different grades of cooperation without clear separation from each other.

Terminology

There is no standardised definition of SaarLorLux. The term SaarLorLux refers to several different geographical structures:

The original term only includes the founding members which were the three regions of Saarland, Lorraine and Luxembourg, the so-called triangle of coal and steel industries.

The term also refers to the cooperation of Saarland, Lorraine and Luxembourg with the regions of Walloon and Rhineland Palatinate or parts of these two additional regions.

One of these combinations, also called SaarLorLux, is Saarland-Lorraine-Luxembourg-Trier-Westpfalz. Trier and Westpfalz are the western parts of Rhineland-Palatinate. For example, there is a SaarLorLux-ticket, which can be used on all trains of this greater region.

Another combination is Saarland, Lothringen, Luxembourg, Walloon Region, and Rhineland Palatinate or Saarland, Lothringen, Luxembourg, the French community of Belgium, and the German-speaking community of Belgium.

The official name of government organisations usually uses the names of all participants. The summit of the SaarLorLux region has the official name "Summit of the greater region Saarland, Lothringen, Luxembourg, Walloon Region, French community of Belgium, German speaking community of Belgium".

Almost all the meanings of SaarLorLux include the three original members and exclude all other regions except the five members or parts of them.

There are many alternative names: SaarLorLux +, Saar-Lor-Lux-Westpfalz-Trier, Saar-Lor-Lux Wallonie Rheinland Pfalz, and Greater Region.

The government of Luxembourg wishes to use the term ''greater region'' to represent Saarland, Lothringen, Luxembourg, Walloon Region, the French community of Belgium, and the German-speaking community of Belgium, but within and outside the European Union, several other greater regions are beginning to develop. For example, in the greater region of Switzerland, Alsace Baden-Wuerttemberg the use of the term ''greater region'' refers to this region. There is no realistic chance of an international agreement requiring the use of the term ''greater region'' to be restricted to SaarLorLux.

Organization of SaarLorLux

SaarLorLux sees a large amount of governmental, non-governmental and mixed cooperation. The SaarLorLux cooperation is not just between five partners. In fact, the cooperation consists of a multitude of single cooperations, treaties and organisations. The single cooperations often do not consist of the same members, because some of the regions do not participate in every cooperation or are represented by different political municipalities. These forms of cooperation have led to the creation of a variety of different organisations.

Governmental cooperations

Summit Conferences

Based on a 1994 decision, there are regular summit conferences.

The participants are:
* Prime Minister of Luxembourg (le premier ministre du Grand Duché de Luxembourg)
* Minister-President of the Saarland (der Ministerpräsident des Saarlandes)
* Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate (der Ministerpräsident von Rheinland-Pfalz)
* Minister-President of the Walloon Region (le Ministre-Président de la Région Wallonne)
* Minister-President of the French Community of Belgium (le Ministre-Président de la Communauté française de Belgique)
* Minister-President of the German-speaking Community of Belgium (der Ministerpräsident der deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft Belgiens)
* '' Préfet'' of Lorraine (le préfet de la région Lorraine)
* President of the regional council of Lorraine (le président du conseil régional de Lorraine)
* President of the general council of the ''département'' Moselle (le président du conseil general du département de la Moselle)
* President of the general council of the ''département'' Meurthe et Moselle

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