Question: What region of France is Paris in?

Regions of France








This article is part of a series on theAdministrative
divisions of France
Administrative divisions
Regions
Departments
Arrondissements
Cantons
Intercommunality
Métropole
Communauté urbaine
Communauté d'agglomération
Communauté de communes
Communes
Associated communes
Municipal arrondissements
Overseas France
Overseas departments and regions
Overseas collectivities
Sui generis collectivity
Overseas country
Overseas territory
Clipperton Islandvt
France is divided into 18 administrative regions (French: région, [ʁeʒjɔ̃]), including 13 metropolitan regions and 5 overseas regions.[1] The 13 metropolitan regions (including 12 mainland regions and Corsica) are each further subdivided into 2 to 13 departments, while the overseas regions consist of only one department each and hence are also referred to as "overseas departments". The current legal concept of region was adopted in 1982, and in 2016 what had been 27 regions was reduced to 18.
History

The term région was officially created by the Law of Decentralisation (2 March 1982), which also gave regions their legal status. The first direct elections for regional representatives took place on 16 March 1986.[2] In 2016, the number of regions was reduced from 27 to 18 through mergers.
Reform and mergers of regions
In 2014, the French parliament passed a law reducing the number of metropolitan regions from 22 to 13 effective 1 January 2016.[3]



 Nord-Pas 
de Calais
Picardy
Upper 
Normandy
Île-de-
France
Champagne-
Ardenne
Lorraine
Alsace
Franche-
Comté
Burgundy
Centre-
Val de Loire
Pays de la 
Loire
Brittany
Lower 
Normandy
Poitou-
Charentes
Limousin
Auvergne
Rhône-
Alpes
Aquitaine
Midi-Pyrénées
Languedoc-
Roussillon
Provence-
Alpes-
Côte d'Azur
Corsica
French Guiana
Guadeloupe
Martinique
Mayotte
RéunionBelgium
Luxembourg
Germany
Switzerland
Italy
United Kingdom
Andorra
Brazil
Suriname
Spain
MonacoChannel
Bay of
Biscay
Ligurian
Sea
Mediterranean
Sea

The law gave interim names for most of the new regions by combining the names of the former regions, e.g. the region composed of Aquitaine, Poitou-Charentes and Limousin was temporarily called Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes.  However, the combined region of Upper and Lower Normandy is simply called "Normandy" (Normandie).  Permanent names were proposed by the new regional councils by 1 July 2016 and new names confirmed by the Conseil d'État by 30 September 2016.[4][5] The legislation defining the new regions also allowed the Centre region to officially change its name to "Centre-Val de Loire" with effect from January 2015.[6]
Two regions, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, opted to retain their interim names.[7][8]






Regions that merged:

Regions that remained unchanged:

Overview of region division proposals

 Édouard Balladur's proposal
 Manuel Valls's proposal A
 Manuel Valls's proposal B
 President François Hollande's proposal
Regions as instituted by the National Assembly in 2014

Regions and their capitals

Regions from 1982 to 2016
Between 1982 and 2015, there were 22 regions in Metropolitan France.  Before 2011, there were four overseas regions (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Réunion); in 2011 Mayotte became the fifth.

Role
Regions lack separate legislative authority and therefore cannot write their own statutory law. They levy their own taxes and, in return, receive a decreasing part of their budget from the central government, which gives them a portion of the taxes it levies. They also have considerable budgets managed by a regional council (conseil régional) made up of representatives voted into office in regional elections.
A region's primary responsibility is to build and furnish high schools. In March 2004, the French central government unveiled a controversial plan to transfer regulation of certain categories of non-teaching school staff to the regional authorities. Critics of this plan contended that tax revenue was insufficient to pay for the resulting costs, and that such measures would increase regional inequalities.
In addition, regions have considerable discretionary power over infrastructural spending, e.g., education, public transit, universities and research, and assistance to business owners. This has meant that the heads of wealthy regions such as Île-de-France or Rhône-Alpes can be high-profile positions.
Proposals to give regions limited legislative autonomy have met with considerable resistance; others propose transferring certain powers from the departments to their respective regions, leaving the former with limited authority.
Regional control
Number of regions controlled by each coalition since 1986.

Overseas regions
Overseas region (French: Région d'outre-mer) is a recent designation, given to the overseas departments that have similar powers to those of the regions of metropolitan France. As integral parts of the French Republic, they are represented in the National Assembly, Senate and Economic and Social Council, elect a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and use the euro as their currency.
Although these territories have had these political powers since 1982, when France's decentralisation policy dictated that they be given elected regional councils along with other regional powers, the designation overseas regions dates only to the 2003 constitutional change; indeed, the new wording of the constitution aims to give no precedence to either appellation overseas department or overseas region, although the second is still virtually unused by French media.
The following have overseas region status:
in the Indian Ocean (Africa)
Mayotte
Réunion
in the Americas
French Guiana in South America
Guadeloupe in the Antilles (Caribbean, Central America)
Martinique in the Antilles (Caribbean, Central America)
Saint Pierre and Miquelon (off Canada, in North America), once an overseas department, was demoted to a territorial collectivity in 1985.

See also

Ranked list of French regions
Administrative divisions of France
List of French regions and overseas collectivities by GDP
List of regions of France by population
Flags of the regions of France
ISO 3166-2:FR
General:
Decentralisation in France
Budget of France
Regional councils of France
Administrative divisions of France
Overseas
Outremer
Overseas collectivity
Overseas department
Overseas departments and territories of France



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 Radio France Internationale in English
Overseas regions