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 high schools; 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 infrastructure (education, public transportation systems, aid 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 time to time, discussions about giving limited legislative autonomy to regions, but such proposals are controversial. There are also proposals to suppress the local governments of the départements and to folding them into the régions, keeping the départements only as administrative subdivisions.

List

Alsace Aquitaine Auvergne Basse-Normandie Bourgogne Brittany Centre Champagne-Ardenne Corse (special status) Franche-Comté Haute-Normandie

Île-de-France Languedoc-Roussillon Limousin Lorraine Midi-Pyrénées Nord-Pas-de-Calais Pays de la Loire Picardie Poitou-Charentes Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur Rhône-Alpes

• 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) pt:Regiões administrativas francesas sv:Frankrikes regioner