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This paper aims to provide a short survey of the development of international action in the city of Lille and its agglomeration. It focuses on three aspects: 1) politics, with the legitimacy and leadership of the involved communities; 2) geography, with the spatial extent of relations; and 3) history, through the continuity of action and its possible disruptions. The late 1980s were a turning point: after the town twinning phenomenon of the 1950s, international action diversified at the same time as a metropolitan project was clearly asserted by the inter-municipal community that had been created in 1968 (and which became the European Metropolis of Lille [Métropole européenne de Lille, MEL] in 2015). This action materialized through multi-scale cooperation, which occurred across the border with neighboring Belgian communities, but also on a European—and even global—level, the aim being to improve the region’s attractiveness and to promote a spirit of solidarity.