Jean-Louis Valls Retires After 11 Years Leading Pyrenees Cross-Border Cooperation

Jean-Louis Valls is retiring this summer after 11 years as director of the Pyrenees Working Community (CTP), a public cross-border cooperation body based in Jaca, Aragon. The organisation brings together France's Occitanie and New Aquitaine regions, Spain's autonomous communities of Catalonia, Aragon, Navarre and the Basque Country, and Andorra.

Valls took over when the CTP's main activities were limited to the Poctefa cross-border European programme and the Pyrenean Observatory on Climate Change. Under his leadership, operations expanded significantly, with staff growing from 11 to 22. Key initiatives now include projects on dry stone walls as shared cultural heritage, promotion of renewable hydrogen as a green energy source, and an annual trans-Pyrenean forum where 70 young people—10 from each member territory—discuss common challenges over three days. The CTP also advances health cooperation, highlighted by a November 2025 agreement signed in Perpignan between Catalonia's Health Service and Occitanie's Regional Health Agency, allowing emergency ambulances to cross the border.

The group's goals centre on improving wellbeing for border populations, fostering a sense of belonging among young people to the Pyrenean territory, easing access to healthcare, and preserving cultural heritage by gradually removing cooperation barriers.

Valls emphasised Andorra's unique status as a state, which has boosted the CTP's international profile. It enabled presentations on the Pyrenean climate strategy at United Nations headquarters—where Andorra holds membership—and participation in early COP climate conferences.

Despite rising nationalism, Valls sees strong public interest in cooperation. He cited the cross-border Cerdanya hospital in Puigcerdà, where French patients increasingly seek treatment, as evidence that shared public services override borders. In areas like the Pyrenees or Cerdanya, frontiers have long been porous, much like ties between La Seu d'Urgell and Andorra.

Looking ahead, Valls advocated promoting neighbouring languages to build cooperation and developing joint public services, such as larger shared hospitals rather than duplicating facilities on each side of the border. A European Commission study suggests cutting cooperation obstacles by 20%—from 300-400 currently—could raise border regions' GDP by 2% through service mutualisation. The CTP is funding a feasibility study for a tram linking La Seu d'Urgell and Andorra, drawing inspiration from lines like Strasbourg-Kehl between France and Germany, or shared hospitals on the France-Belgium border.

Relations with Madrid and Paris remain positive, including smooth involvement in the ambulance agreement. Valls pointed to the 2023 Barcelona treaty on strengthened friendship and cooperation between Spain and France, which references the CTP multiple times, as creating new opportunities across all members.