Photo : D.R.
Christian Poncelet, 81 years old, has shared his career between local, regional and national mandates: his positions notably include Mayor of Remiremont (1983-2001), President of the Departmental Council of Les Vosges (since 1976), Senator of Les Vosges (since 1977), Regional Councillor of Lorraine (1977-1992), Deputy of the 3rd district of Les Vosges (1962-1973), six times Secretary of State (1972-1977) and President of the Senate (1998-2008).
Commerce International: Compared with other French departments, what are the major assets of Les Vosges ?
Christian Poncelet: “If you look at a map of France and Europe, you will immediately notice that the crowning asset of the department of Les Vosges is its geographical position, equidistant from major European agglomerations (Paris-Munich, London-Milan, Marseilles-Rotterdam, Madrid-Berlin), at the threshold of the important economic corridors that are the Rhineland corridor and the Rotterdam – Lyon – Marseilles axis. Economists estimate that, within a 1,000 kilometre-radius, Les Vosges is at the heart of a market of 400 million consumers that concentrates one-quarter of the world’s wealth. The second advantage of Les Vosges, from the point of view of sustainable development, is its forest and hydro mineral richness. With one-half of its surface, in other words 280,000 hectares, covered in forest, this department is a sort of “small French Canada”, with a comprehensive wood industry, which allows us to develop a very significant wood energy and wood construction policy. As for water, the Les Vosges mountains hosts four spas. Two of these, Vittel and Contrexéville, produce 1.8 billion bottles of mineral water every year, and thus make up the leading hydro mineral source in Europe, and probably the world.”
Transport and housing are priorities for the economic development of
territories. What are your projects?
C.P.: “Les Vosges has scored points with the TGV high-speed train stations of Épinal, Saint-Dié and Remiremont, now two-and-a-half hours from Paris. Our development is based on 3 major projects. The completion of the 2x2-lane road of the European E512, connecting the north and south of Europe, crossing the Les Vosges mountains, is crucial. Similarly, the doubling of the mono-tub tunnel of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines – the longest in France – at the north of this area, which will provide links to the south of Lorraine, from Les Vosges to Germany. Finally, parallel to the creation of a TGV-East connecting station at Vandières, we are urging for the electrification of the Épinal-Belfort railway line, linking the TGV-East and the future TGV Rhine-Rhone, opening the doors to Germany, Switzerland and Italy, and cutting by half the rail travelling time between south Lorraine and the Rhodanian basin. In the domain of housing, which is not part of the department’s legal scope, we encourage social landlords, communes and companies to use wood for construction and energy. The furnaces thus created since 2001 in Les Vosges represent power of over 28 megawatts, a replacement of 8,000 toe (tonnes of oil equivalent, editorial note) per year and an annual cut of 25,000 tonnes of carbon gas.”
What are other ways to develop the economic attractiveness of Les Vosges?
C.P.: “As an already well-developed tourist destination, with 1,300,000 visitors and 2 million night stays per year, Les Vosges has decided to develop its attractiveness for tourists even further. Our striking force consists of 12,000 local players, 13 ski resorts and 22,00 spa treatment centres. Our second axis of development: the increasing fame of the Pôle Fibres Grand Est (Greater East Fibre Cluster). Based in Épinal, with a network of 260 companies and 2,500 researchers, the cluster works on bringing out the exceptional qualities of fibres to create new products, new eco-materials, new jobs. Our third project is the international water cluster. With the presence of a few heavyweights (Nestlé-Waters, Véolia, Suez), we are hoping to make the Vittel-Contrexéville basin a R&D centre for a product essential to life, which will undergo a dramatic shortage in the future: water. Finally, with the agency Vosges Développement(1) that we have recently created, a public service delegation that will put the Épinal-Mirecourt airport to full use, we have some projects which should allow us to increase our attractiveness.”
How can the planting of foreign companies on the territory be promoted ?
C.P.: “We must raise our profile, promote our assets and projects, in short, be exemplary in what we do, in our environment, in our reception of visitors who are, quite exceptionally, three times more numerous than our population. This exemplariness is not unknown to the some fifty companies based on foreign capital that have been drawn to Les Vosges in the last decades. These are our best ambassadors, and we are counting heavily upon them us.”
In the context of the international economic crisis, how is Les Vosges working towards boosting employment?
C.P.: “Although it has no legal scope in economic areas, like all French departmental councils, our department has constructed a stimulus plan to accompany State efforts. It aims at injecting 400 million euros in investments, with one-half on twenty industrial projects currently suspended or frozen due to the crisis. The plan also consists in encouraging our 515 communes to accelerate committing 120 million euros to works and facilities. What the Departmental Council of Les Vosges has done has been to activate the launch of 80 million euros worth of road works, building and school developments that will provide support for building and public works activities.”
What do you think of Jacques Attali’s proposal to get rid of departments in order to reinforce power of regions?
C.P.: “Jacques Attali is an intelligent man. But an internship at the Departmental Council of Les Vosges would have revealed many things to him before he suggested wielding the axe. The department is a central pivot of close-range public action, notably social, that cannot be felled from one day to the next. This is the ideal arena for local democracy and territorial development, that is neither too far nor too close to the citizen. Edouard Balladur, who has probably stepped outside of Paris more
often than Mr. Attali, has been more realistic and pragmatic in this matter.”
As President of the Les Vosges Departmental Council for 33 years, how would you sum up your time here?
C.P.: “I have raised my activities. I have made a point of diversifying the department’s economic fabric, yesterday dominated by the textiles industry, by developing the metallurgy, wood and agro-food industries. I have always facilitated investments, those of communes, of course, and local players in industry and tourism, but
also of foreign investors. All the same, the crux of my approach has focused on opening up the roads and railways of the valleys of Les Vosges, formerly too isolated.
Today, the TGV-East stops at 3 stations and 3 highways cross the department from north to south, facilitating access to 6 activity zones. One of these, the logistics zone of Damblain will soon host the large Deret-Prologis project (300 million euros in investments, 1,500 jobs) in the middle of the Rotterdam – Marseille corridor. The crisis has not spared our department – I am thinking of automotive equipment manufact-urers (5,000 jobs) – and it has a tendency to overturn many certitudes.”
English 
