“Through this contract, the State and the Occitanie region are looking, together, in the same direction”, it is “proof of a desire to work together between State and regions” and the illustration of the “new method founded on dialogue and co-construction”, greeted the Prime Minister.

These contracts are “tools for our ecological planning. It is not only a question of developing the territory but of preserving it and adapting to it. It is not only a question of launching projects but of ensuring their impact on our environment,” said the head of government.

Regarding mobility, Ms. Borne said she wanted to “continue to walk on our two legs: major projects, such as high-speed lines (LGV) on the one hand”, strongly demanded by this region, and “from the other, local, everyday projects, decisive for opening up”, evoking the possibility on this subject of transport of “signing endorsements to the CPERs next year”.

“We must continue to open up and ensure that everyone can have the mobility they need,” she said while the region, the second poorest in France, is experiencing the strongest demographic growth.

“We expect a lot from the LGVs. (…) We are for the metropolitan RERs” as recently mentioned by President Emmanuel Macron “but we can only have more RERs if we have the LGVs”, affirmed for his share the socialist president of the region Carole Delga, also president of Regions of France.

Ms. Delga also stressed the need to “connect people and fight against this feeling of loneliness, which can lead to the worst populist reflexes”.

The 6.4 billion are mobilized equally by the State and the region. This is the first CPER concluded for the Occitanie region, since the merger of Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon.

The contract aims at “a rapid revival of the regional economy” following the health crisis and at the “transformation of the territory by 2027” in terms above all of ecological and energy transition, food sovereignty, health, of training and employment, according to Matignon.