La Comunidad de Aglomeración del País Vasco y las posibilidades de cooperación con Euskadi y Navarra

Abstract

Within the current legal framework, both at the Autonomous Community level and at the State level, and along with the regional reform carried out by the Government of France which contemplates the merger of the Regions and the strengthening of the Commonwealths, the French Basque Country has its own institution, the Communauté d’Agglomération du Pays Basque (CAPV), which is capable of developing cross-border cooperative efforts in the fields of its powers alongside similar institutions both in the Basque Country and Navarre. Even so, beyond the powers of compulsory, optional, elective, and additional nature referred to by the law and the delegation of powers through prior agreement with France, the New Aquitaine Region, and/or the Pyrénées-Atlantiques Department, the CAPV has appropriated to itself certain shared or unrelated competences in the fields of peace and coexistence and in terms of language policy – all of which goes to show the CAPV’s political will, its desire to assert itself as the main representative institution of the region, and its eagerness to assume an institutional leadership role. These areas can also lead to cooperation with the governments of the three Basque territories, provided cooperation is multi-level in nature and the numerous obstacles which currently exist are overcome.