The French regions are the country's largest administrative subdivision and number 18, of which 13 are metropolitan (including Corsica, which is a distinct type of territorial community) and 5 overseas.

They are governed by Title XII of the French Constitution of 1958 and by Part IV of the General Code of Territorial Authorities: they are territorial authorities, endowed with legal personality, to which functions of administrative decentralisation and autonomy are attributed (Mayotte has no regional council but a single assembly acting as a regional and departmental council).

The metropolitan regions are in turn divided into at least two departments, while the overseas regions each comprise only one department, i.e. a total of 96 departments.

Until 31 December 2015, there were 22 regions in metropolitan France.

Institutional Profiles

Governing bodies

The deliberative body of the region is the regional council, elected by direct universal suffrage every six years. Executive power is vested in the president of the region, who is the head of local government. He is elected by the Regional Council at its first meeting following its renewal.

There is also a non-elective advisory body, the regional economic and social council, which assists the regional council by giving an opinion on the manoeuvres to be implemented; however, its opinions are in no way binding.

Each region also has a prefect. The regional prefect becomes the prefect of the capital department. It represents the French government on the territory.

Prerogative

The French regions do not have legislative autonomy, but do have regulatory power. They can levy taxes (or rather, the national government reimburses them for part of the taxes they collect) and have a budget, even if it is not considerable. Their main function under the law is the construction of schools and the management of local public transport, particularly for TERs; in March 2004, the French government announced a controversial plan to transfer control of non-teaching staff to the regions. Critics of this plan questioned whether sufficient fiscal resources could be transferred to the regions for these additional burdens, and also that such measures would increase inequalities between regions.

In addition, the regions have considerable discretionary power over infrastructure spending (education, public transport, support for universities and research, support for businesses). As a result, being president of a highly developed region such as Île-de-France or Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur is considered a high-profile position.

From time to time, there are discussions on granting limited legislative autonomy to the regions, but these proposals are always controversial. There are also proposals to abolish local authorities in the départements, which would be merged into the regions, while the départements would remain merely administrative subdivisions.

The 2014 reform

Law No. 2015-29 of 16 January 2015, approved on 16 December 2014 and in force since the 2015 regional elections, provided for the creation of 7 new regions in metropolitan France by merging 16 regions as part of the major reform of local authorities. In particular, the following regions were created, whose names, with the exception of Normandy, were initially provisional. On 30 September 2016, the government formalised the definitive new names of the 6 new regions that had provisional names.

• List of the new regions, with the deleted regions in brackets :Grand Est, the provisional name was Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine (Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne, Lorraine) ;
• New Aquitaine, the provisional name was Aquitaine-Limosino-Poitou-Charentes (Aquitaine, Limousin, Poitou-Charentes);
  Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the provisional name became definitive (Auvergne, Rhône-Alpes);
• Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, the provisional name has become definitive (Bourgogne, Franche-Comté);
• Occitania, the provisional name was Languedoc-Roussillon-Midi-Pyrénées (Languedoc-Roussillon, Midi-Pyrénées) ;
• Haute France, the provisional name was Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie (Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Picardie);
• Normandy (Haute-Normandie, Basse-Normandie).

In addition, the Centre region was renamed Centre-Valle de la Loire.

As a result of the reform, the number of regions in mainland France has increased from 22 to 13 (plus the 4 overseas regions and Mayotte).