On 28 November 1969, the Belgian daily newspaper La Dernière Heure publishes an article that reports on some of the topics discussed at the symposium on ‘Border regions in the Common Market era’, organised by the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and held in Brussels in November 1969. In particular, this article focuses on the problems facing the Belgian regions, especially issues of cross-border workers in the region of Hainaut (on the French–Belgian border). The cross-border issues in this area are currently managed by the INTERREG IVA France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen Joint Technical Secretariat, one of the main developers and drivers of cross-border cooperation in the area.