Friday 13 November 2020

Institut d’Estudis Catalans | Carrer del Carme 47 | 08001 Barcelona | Spain                                                                    

Europe is slowly emerging from the acute phase of the pandemic that has hit the 21st century. Economic and social recovery plans are being put in place. Every border has suffered from the pandemic. The closure of borders has caused restrictions during the crisis and obstacles that have had to be faced.  How was this managed and what were the social and political consequences on the Pyrenean border region? What impacts on cross-border relations? What decisions were taken? How have the local authorities reacted? In order to better understand this exceptional situation for border regions, we would like to look at its implications from the point of view of the Euroregion Pyrenees-Mediterranean, which represents the Occitania region, the Balearic Islands, Andorra (a small Pyrenean state located between France and Spain) as well as Catalonia, which suffered particularly from the pandemic.