Headquarters in Nice and rotating presidency, here is Estrosi's recipe for the future cross-border region

«A secretariat for the cross-border alliance of the Southern Alps, under the responsibility of the “Metropole” of Nice, with a rotating annual presidency». This is the proposal pronounced by the mayor of Nice and president of the Nice Côte d'Azur metropolitan community Christian Estrosi in the council chamber of the Municipality of Imperia, in front of the president of the Province of Imperia Claudio Scajola, that of Cuneo Luca Robaldo, the minister plenipotentiary Andrea Cavallari and Philippe Voiry, French ambassador for cross-border cooperation. With them the representatives of the communities (among others Mentone and Carf, Ventimiglia, Principality of Monaco), of the Liguria Region, of the metropolitan cities of Genoa and Turin. A meeting in grand style which saw Estrosi, mayor of Nice almost continuously since 2008, on an official visit to Imperia for the first time.

The purpose of the event is to define the governance of the new alliance of the Southern Alps: a true “cross-border region” whose birth could at this point be sanctioned in Nice in the next territorial cooperation meeting, all under the umbrella of the Quirinale treaty which established special relations in 2021 between the two founding countries of the European Union, Italy and France. «A treaty within a treaty», said Scajola, who together with Estrosi deposited a first specific dossier based on Interreg funds last January 31st», while President Luca Robaldo took the opportunity «to demand greater attention from the government authorities» on the Tenda hill, declaring himself “available for any initiative”. The themes of the future cross-border reality – heir to 80 years of attempts to integrate the territories, from the Cuneo-Nizza-Imperia district to Eurocin and the Alps of the Sea – start from the environment and ecological transition, transport and sustainable mobility (the objective of Estrosi a railway without any more transfers from Ventimiglia to Nice airport), health, work. How far will the life basin extend? «The territories of Imperia, Cuneo and Nice», said President Scajola, even if even closer cooperation initiatives are already being prepared on a hyperlocal scale.