Cross-border cooperation · institutional design · public-sector recovery

Making cooperation between institutions work, from EU level to the field.

Herché & Barbé is a Paris-based advisory firm for public authorities, European programmes and international institutions. We design the legal and governance frameworks that let territories, States and administrations act together, and we help public bodies reorganise when financial, human and political stakes meet.

Talk to Jonathan Boudry See our references

12legal and strategic cross-border assignments at the MOT, the French cross-border network, 2012 – 2016

35+years of combined experience of our partners with public authorities, the State and European institutions

4working languages in the partnership: English, French, Italian and Czech

2partners personally involved in every assignment, with no junior consultant in between

Where to start

What is your issue today?

Pick the situation closest to yours: we show how we approach it and what you receive.

A cross-border cooperation framework to set up or restructure

Choice of legal form (agreement, association, EGTC, local grouping), statutes, governance and set-up procedure.

See our approach

A European programme or project to steer

Definition, evaluation and monitoring of INTERREG programmes and of the projects they support.

See our approach

Legal obstacles holding a project back

Analysis of the barriers, options compared, recommendations up to the European legal framework.

See our approach

A territorial strategy to build

Strategic diagnosis, foresight, co-design workshops, roadmap and monitoring.

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A public body to put back on its feet

Financial and organisational recovery, workforce trajectory, shared services, social dialogue.

See our approach

Why Herché & Barbé

What you find with us

Legal engineering that gets built

Statutory choices tested on real bodies: EGTCs, local cross-border groupings, operating contracts for cross-border public services. We compare the options and say which one holds.

Fluent in the EU framework and in the town hall

From the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council to the management of a municipality and its inter-municipal authority: we know how a European rule lands in a local administration.

Partners, not juniors

You speak to the partners who carry out the assignment, before and after the proposal. No consultant is substituted without your agreement.

At ease across languages and cultures

English, French, Italian and Czech in the partnership, and practice across European borders, French outermost regions and West Africa.

Expertise

Four areas of practice

One firm for what public organisations experience together: borders, governance, territory and organisation.

Cross-border and European cooperation

EGTCs, local groupings, INTERREG programmes, legal obstacles, cross-border public services.

Institutional design and governance

Governance models, decision-making, cooperation between elected members and administration.

Territorial strategy and development

Foresight, territorial projects, structuring development and transport projects.

Public-sector organisation and recovery

Financial recovery, workforce trajectory, shared services, change with staff representatives.

Ways of working

Directly with you, or inside your consortium

The format follows the size of the assignment. For focused legal, governance and organisational work, we act directly. For larger or multi-country assignments, we join consortia led by other firms as named senior experts.

Direct assignment

A precise question, a deliverable

Legal comparison of cooperation structures, draft statutes, governance model, organisational diagnosis: a clear scope, a timetable and deliverables in editable format.

Named expert

A role in a wider team

Senior expert in cross-border legal and institutional design within a consortium bidding for or delivering a European, bilateral or multilateral assignment.

Targeted opinion

An outside view before a decision

An independent, confidential analysis before a delicate choice: legal form, negotiating position, reorganisation, recovery trajectory.

The firm

A young firm, experienced partners

Founded in late 2024, Herché & Barbé started operating in April 2026.

The experience shown on this site is that of its two founding partners before the firm existed. We present it as such, with period and capacity, so that you can verify it.

What it means in practice: the people you meet are the people who do the work, and they are not splitting their time across a dozen files in a large structure. For the largest assignments, we say plainly that we expect to contribute as named experts within a consortium.

Meet the partners

Late 2024Company createdS.A.S. Herché et Barbé, Paris
April 2026Operations startedBoth partners involved in every assignment
2002 – 2026The partners’ careersA large French département (until 2019), the Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière (MOT), municipalities and inter-municipal authorities in the French Caribbean, consultancy for the French Development Agency (AFD)

References

Experience you can verify

Each reference is tied to the partner who carried it out, with period and capacity. Details and contact persons are provided on request.

EGTCGLCTLegal designCross-border

Setting up and structuring European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) and local cross-border cooperation groupings (GLCT)

Jonathan Boudry · 2013 – 2016 · project officer and head of legal expertise, Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière (MOT), the French network and resource centre for cross-border cooperation

GLCT of the Doubs urban agglomeration (AUD), eastern France: support in drafting the statutes and setting up the grouping.
Technical and legal support for the creation and governance of several EGTCs across varied territories: mountain areas, rural areas, urban areas and maritime spaces.
Varied tasks entrusted to these groupings: environmental protection, tourism development, cooperation in health and in transport.
Selection, then implementation, of the legal structure best suited to each project, according to its nature, its partners and its legal framework.
Contribution to choosing the governance model of a facility run by two municipalities on either side of a border, as close as possible to local needs.

Statutory design skills for public cooperation bodies, transferable to other structures (local public companies, public interest groupings, joint authorities).

Financial recoveryGovernanceSocial dialogueOutermost region

Financial and organisational recovery of a municipality and an inter-municipal authority (French Caribbean)

Jonathan Boudry · 2020 – April 2026 · shared chief of staff (directeur de cabinet) of the inter-municipal authority and of the municipality, with no director general of services (chief administrative officer) in either body

Structural financial recovery of the inter-municipal authority, including the closure of a loss-making industrial and commercial public service.
Financial recovery of the municipality and organisational redeployment to absorb 70 unreplaced retirements.
Budget follow-up with the regional audit chamber (Chambre régionale des comptes) to apply a recovery trajectory while improving the efficiency of services delivered to the public.
Overseas recovery contract (COROM) agreed with the State.
Improved social dialogue and successful implementation of national reforms on civil-servant pay structure and working time (RIFSEEP, 1,607 hours).
Management of all the services of a municipality and an inter-municipal authority and of relations with funders; organisation of support functions shared between the inter-municipal authority and its member municipalities.
Strategic reflection with elected members; interface with the State and institutional partners.

Starting point: two bodies each carrying more than €5m of accumulated deficits. Departure in April 2026 after a new organisation was put in place and a director general of services was recruited in each body.

EU PresidencyTerritorial cohesionLegal framework

Technical support to the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Jonathan Boudry · 2015 · MOT, for the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, in the context of European territorial cohesion

Study of the legal obstacles to cross-border cooperation, leading to recommendations to improve the European legal framework and make cross-border projects easier to carry out.
Contribution to the first outline of a European regulation intended to overcome obstacles to cross-border cooperation.
Participation in the meeting of the Network of Territorial Cohesion Contact Points (NTCCP).
Contribution to the presentation made at the meeting of Directors-General in charge of territorial cohesion (DG meeting).

Assignment for a Member State holding the Presidency of the Council, in liaison with the European institutions.

All references

The partners

Two partners, a direct relationship

Main contact

Jonathan Boudry

Founding partner. Cross-border cooperation, governance and territorial development: four years as head of legal expertise at the MOT, then over six years as shared chief of staff of an inter-municipal authority and a municipality. Fluent in English, French and Italian, and in Czech.

His background

Organisation and human resources

Aurélie Peyrat-Viola

Founding partner. More than twenty years of HR and organisation experience in local government, including as deputy HR director of a large, newly reshaped French département.

Her background

Our commitments

What we commit to

Simple commitments you can find in each of our proposals and check as the assignment progresses.

Direct contact with the partners. The partners carry out the assignment; no substitution without your agreement.
Cross-review of every deliverable before it is handed over, and deliverables provided in editable format.
Confidentiality, independence and neutrality of the analyses; every party is heard at each stage of a diagnosis.
Reply within two working days to your requests during an assignment.
Support, not substitution. We strengthen your teams and hand over our tools, respecting the responsibilities of elected members and services.
Frugality. Digital deliverables, rail and public transport first, on-site presence reserved for key moments.

A cross-border project, a programme, a sensitive situation?

Let us have a confidential first conversation to frame your issue and identify the options.

Talk to Jonathan Boudry