Paris, 18 July 2023
Catherine Colonna, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, will go to Germany (Rhineland-Palatinate) then Alsace on Friday 21 July 2023 during a joint visit with her German counterpart, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Ms Annalena Baerbock. Border cooperation will be at the heart of the visit.
Mme Colonna and her counterpart will visit the water treatment and storage plant in Steinfeld, Rhineland-Palatinate. The plant, designed to produce drinking water for the southern Palatinate and North Alsace areas, is part of the Franco-German PAWENA (Palatinat Alsace Wasser Eau Nature) project, paid for with European funding. The facility illustrates bilateral cooperation on the environment.
The two ministers will go to the border village of Scheibenhardt, in Germany, and to Lauterbourg, in Alsace, to the offices of Eurodistrict PAMINA ([southern] Palatinate, Middle Upper Rhine and North Alsace), whose mission is to provide information for people living in the border zone and pool skills between France and Germany there. Mme Colonna and Ms Baerbock will sign the Franco-German agreement on cross-border apprenticeships, which aims to give a boost to apprenticeship training on both sides of the border. A discussion with French and German citizens and elected representatives from the region will conclude the visit.
Source – French Government