Forum for the Future: Strengthening environmental, economic, and social resilience

In its first thematic cycle, the Forum for the Future worked on "Ecological Change" and "Economic and Social Resilience" in cooperation with actors from six towns and counties: Marburg, Nebelschütz and Burgenlandkreis in Germany, and Dunkirk, Loos-en-Gohelle and Mouans-Sartoux in France. The experiences of these communities informed dialogues initiated by the Forum for the Future in 2020 and 2021, which examined the the conditions for successful transformation processes at the municipal level.

Seven recommendations for the goverments of France and Germany  

In a next step, the Forum brought together forty people from both countries – from civil society, public agencies, and science – to develop recommendations for action for the national authorities of the two countries. This “Resonance Space" for local-level experience and on-the-ground knowledge is a core component of the Forum’s work. The Forum for the Future brings people who are driving change and implementing transformations in towns and communities together with actors from national politics and public administration, creating a space for mutual learning and exchange. Echoing President Emmanuel Macron's speech to the European Parliament on 9 May, the Resonance Space facilitates shared reflection on the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Recommendations for action for environmental change and economic and social resilience:

1.    Rethink financing for municipal climate action
2.    Enable effective climate action monitoring at the municipal and regional levels
3.    Improve cooperation among municipalities and with other institutional actors at the local level
4.    Prioritize local and sustainable food systems
5.    Strengthen participatory cultural work as a foundation of socio-ecological transformations
6.    Pioneer new forms of cooperation between municipalities and citizens
7.    Facilitate non-discriminatory transformation policies at the local level

• The Forum's recommendations are summarized here. The specific proposals for action are detailed on the Forum’s website (in German): https://df-zukunftswerk.eu/was-machen-wir/resonanzraum/.
• The longer version of the recommendations.

Established under the Treaty of Aachen, signed by President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Angela Merkel in January 2019, the Franco-German Forum for the Future aims to strengthen Franco-German cooperation and integration by promoting mutual understanding between French and German societies. Building on its analyses of German and French contexts, the Forum for the Future has facilitated the development of policy recommendations based on on-the-ground experience and innovative dialogues involving German and French actors from diverse sectors. The Franco-German Forum for the Future is supervised by a sixteen-member steering committee and a secretariat based at France Stratégie and the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam (IASS).