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> Bayonne-Donosti, Basque Eurocity
That dual reality has been especially intense for the inhabitants of the Basque Country on both sides of the Bidasoa River, the natural boundary that for hundreds of years has separated Spain and France at this end of the Pyrenees, given that members of the same culture, with the same traditions and the same language have for a long time lived in two different worlds.
In January 1993, the highest institutional echelons of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa and of the Conurbation Committee of Biarritz-Anglet-Bayonne – at that time District – reached an agreement whereby the subscribing parties undertook to foster cooperation between the institutions on both sides of the frontier.
It was the start of a project that is becoming something of a model regarding the quest for solutions for creating that new European awareness amongst citizens: The Bayonne-San Sebastian Basque Eurocity.
This new reality, with a potential population of 600,000 inhabitants and with an urban corridor stretching linearly for over 50 kilometres, is located in a spatially strategic area. It is the middle of the European Atlantic Arc and at the natural crossroads for the main axes of communication that link Portugal, Spain and Africa with the centre of Europe.