With more than 5.5 million inhabitants in a vast area of 57,441 km² and a strategic position in the heart of Europe, the Région Grand Est came into being on 1 January 2016 from the merger between Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine, and has a remarkable potential for development and attractiveness.
Easily accessible from the major European hubs as well as on a wider international scale, it is an open region firmly anchored in national, European and global trade dynamics.
Its economic fabric, with its particularly competitive production sectors – agrifood industries, industrial and agricultural machinery, automotive industry, chemical and pharmaceutical products, metallurgical and mechanical products – make it the 2nd largest exporting region after Île-de-France and the first in volume per capita. The share of its trade with the European Union and Switzerland is thus much higher than for all twelve other French regions.
The only region in France to have a common border with 4 countries (Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland), the Région Grand Est maintains daily cooperation and synergy with foreign neighbouring regions in the most diverse fields: economy, employment, training, culture, tourism and the environment, etc.
Its positioning makes it the region most concerned by the border phenomenon with more than 165,446 frontier workers.
Source: www.grandest.fr