Banks of Moselle here, Banks of Moselle there. The community chaired by Julien Freyburger made an impression and created a buzz in 2024. To celebrate ten years of its creation, it did not do things by halves and created the event before the event by welcoming athletes renowned, just a stone's throw from the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Laura Flessel, aka “The Wasp”, Tony Parker, the French basketball icon, Justine Hénin, the Belgian legend of tennis or even Brahim Asloum and Steven Da Costa, respectively Olympic boxing and karate champion, have successively – and the list is not exhaustive – in the territory for conferences or visits to schools or clubs. Great and beautiful moments of sharing.
Health and the future Elsan hospital on everyone’s lips
The Rives de Moselle community of communes has also been making headlines for several years with the upcoming arrival, planned for 2026, of the new hospital from the Elsan group, the leader in private hospitalization in France. Avant-garde and very ecological, it will bring together, over 33,000 m², two existing establishments: the Notre-Dame clinic in Thionville and the Claude-Bernard hospital-clinic in Metz. With almost all the services that one can imagine in terms of health: emergencies, a maternity, an “SOS Mains”, a cancer institute with numerous specificities (cardiology, orthopedics, urology or thoracic) for an 80% ambulatory activity. “Our objective is to build the hospital of tomorrow, where new technologies combine with a human approach to offer quality care”, announced with conviction Gabriel Giacometti, the general director of Elsan hospitals in Moselle, during the installation symbolic of the first stone, on October 28, 2024. “It is a real challenge and an almost revolutionary change for the territory, because such a health establishment north of Metz and on the Moselle furrow will inevitably generate other developments. Nearly 300 doctors and 800 hospital employees will come to work there. All health projects will be present there. We can even be born in Maizières-lès-Metz from this date. Supporting your creation is an opportunity that will never come again,” admits Julien Freyburger with pride, who has been thinking about this arrival every morning while shaving for a long time, even if his community has concretely taken on health skills from January 1st. 2025.
Riv'Connect, the future urban transport network
In 2025, Rives de Moselle will also move up a gear on mobility, for which it has held responsibility since July 2021. In addition to the transformation and strengthening of its network of cycle paths in order to encourage everyday travel by bike and on foot, the Community of communes has decided to have its own urban transport network. His name? Riv'Connect. “There is a real need because there are flows going towards the Metz metropolis, towards Thionville or Luxembourg, but also internally. Those facing inwards are almost as important as those facing outwards. We are in a very balanced situation,” explains Patrick Abate, the mayor of Talange and deputy vice-president for Mobility. Managed by Keolis 3 Frontières for more than 820,000 euros, “with optional tranche”, Riv'Connect will initially have four bus lines which will be tested from June 2025. Line 1 will connect Hagondange station to the Eurotransit zone via the Gustave-Eiffel high school in Talange. Lines 2 and 3 will respectively serve the Malambas and Jonquières, Marques Avenue and Leroy Merlin areas from Maizières-lès-Metz station. Finally, line 4 will provide a link to Maizières-lès-Metz station, the EuroMoselle zone and the Ecoparc. “We are going to build the offer little by little with a subscription at 20 euros per month and a single ticket at 1.50 euros. Ultimately, there will be at least 5 to 6 lines on this network and 8 to 9, maximum. There will probably be an urban line between Richemont and Maizières-lès-Metz and another between Gandrange and Hagondange station. It is a way of attracting the inhabitants of the right bank to the more frequent lines, probably with an on-demand or minibus-type transport system. My wish is to make loops between all these connections, that would be a guarantee of success,” insists Patrick Abate. The cost of this network would be around 3 to 5 million euros per year.
Focusing on the ecological and energy transition
Rives de Moselle is also innovative in terms of ecological and energy transition. An example? The community hotel, rehabilitated in 2024 for nearly 600,000 euros, is now “exemplary”, says Julien Freyburger, in this regard with 125 photovoltaic panels on the west, south facades and on the roof. Without forgetting the installation of adjustable sunshades on the windows and the glazed stairwell of the south facade. In the same vein, the Plein Soleil swimming pool in Maizières-lès-Metz reopened on November 4, 2024 after almost two years of rehabilitation. Its annual energy bill will drop by 40%, notably thanks to the installation of 194 photovoltaic panels and the connection to the city's future district heating. Simply impressive, like the future new community recycling center, operational at the start of the 2025 school year in Maizières-lès-Metz, for a total amount of two million euros. The Community of Municipalities is not stopping there and is developing the collection of bio-waste as a voluntary contribution. 27 pieces of equipment have already been deployed in the municipalities that requested it. More than 500 composters have also been distributed since the end of 2023 in the region. She is also very active at the educational level in schools with the creation of a specific booklet. “This will contain educational information and will be accessible to children in the first cycle (CP and CE1) and the second cycle (CE2-CM2) on various themes, such as composting, waste sorting, food waste, biodiversity, water awareness, etc. It will be accompanied by a mascot allowing children to identify with Rives de Moselle and its actions. It will be distributed to the 29 primary schools in the area, which represents around 4,000 students,” warns Jean-Luc Queuniez, mayor of Richemont and vice-president responsible for waste collection and recovery.
Economic and industrial know-how
If the community changes gear in many sectors, it can still rely on its economic and industrial vitality. It has almost 26,000 employees, which makes it the second EPCI in Moselle behind the Eurometropolis of Metz, in terms of number of salaried jobs in the private sector, but also 18 business parks and 3,464 establishments such as the essential Chaussea or Schneider Electric . Above all, it is home to industrial flagships such as Stellantis (Trémery), one of the first employers in Mo-selle, NovAsco (Hagondange), taken over during the summer of 2024 by the British fund Greybull or even Arcelor-Mittal Research, the first center of research in the world on steels. “Rives de Moselle is a territory which historically has industry as its DNA and must preserve it. Many businesses have since set up here and many jobs have emerged. If today we are on a less upward curve, it is because we have arrived at the top of the ascent. The strength of this territory is that the industry creates added value and integrates a lot of innovations to do so,” indicates Rémy Sadocco, the mayor of Mondelange and deputy vice-president for economic development.
Rives de Moselle has understood this well and is doing everything possible to attract and pamper new businesses. It offers to support those who invest in real estate as part of the creation or expansion of an activity through the Amie 57 system. Four projects were thus supported in 2024 for 97,400 euros. Since 2006, it has also collaborated with the Initiative Metz association, which supports business creators with honorary loans without interest or guarantee, making it possible to create banking leverage. More than 20 local entrepreneurs were supported in 2023 and 2024 for a total of 250,000 euros.
As a symbol of this seduction, Malezieux and eight companies from the group including the holding company will settle in the area next to Meltem in Norroy-le-Veneur, in 2025. “This choice was made because Malezieux is too far away. is cramped in Woippy and needs space to accommodate its growth. Several companies in the group are now tenants and needed a site in the area. Rives de Mo-selle is a dynamic community focused on the economy of its territory. This ambitious project, currently under study, will constitute a real village of companies whose first stones will emerge from the ground in 2025,” confided Bernard Nucci, the strong man of the company specializing in sanitation and hygiene. The establishment of this in Rives de Moselle once again testifies that the agglomeration chaired by Julien Freyburger is indeed the one which is rising on the departmental level. How far?
Find out more: rivesdemoselle.fr
