Région in France
| This article is part of the series: Administrative divisions of France |
|---|
| Regional level |
| Régions |
| Régions d'outre-mer |
| Departmental level |
| Départements |
| Départements d'outre-mer |
| Arrondissement level |
| Arrondissements |
| Cantonal level |
| Cantons |
| Communal level |
| Communes |
| Communautés urbaines |
| Communautés d'agglomération |
| Communautés de communes |
| Syndicats d'agglomération nouvelle |
| Syndicats de communes |
| Others |
| Collectivités d'outre-mer |
| Collectivité sui generis |
| Pays d'outre-mer |
| Territoire d'outre-mer |
| Scattered Islands |
| Clipperton Island |
France is divided into 26 régions, further subdivided into départements.
Role
Regions do not have legislative autonomy, nor can they issue regulations. They do levy taxes (or, rather, the national government gives them a portion of the taxes it levies) and have sizeable, though not considerable budgets.
Their main legal attribution is to build and pay equipment costs for highschools; in March 2004, the French national government announced a controversial plan to transfer to regions categories of non-teaching school personnel. Critics of this plan contend that it is doubtful than sufficient fiscal resources for these additional charges will be transferred, and that such measures will increase inequalities between regions.
Apart from these legal attributions, regions have considerable discretionary spending for infrastructures (education, public transportation systems, help to universities and research, support for entrepreneurs). Because of this, being president of a wealthy region such as Île-de-France or Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur may be quite a high profile position.
There are, from times to times, discussions for giving some limited legislative autonomy to regions, but such proposals are controversial. There are also proposals of suppressing the départements local governments and folding them into the régions, keeping the départements only as administrative subdivisions.
List
 |
- Régions which are also Départements d'Outre mer (DOM)
(Overseas departments), each of them consisting of a single département coterminous with a région:- 971 Guadeloupe
- 972 Martinique
- 973 French Guiana
- 974 Réunion
See also
- Administrative divisions of France
- Ranked list of French regions
- List of capitals of subnational entities
- French regional elections, 2004
de:Region (Frankreich) es:Organización político-administrativa de Francia eo:Francaj regionoj fr:Régions françaisesnl:Regio's in Frankrijk it:Regioni Francesi lb:Lëscht vun de franséische Regiounen pl:Region (Francja) sv:Frankrikes regioner