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Each inhabited French territory, metropolitan or overseas, is represented in both the French National Assembly and the French Senate .


Départements D'outre-mer or Régions D'outre-mer

(Overseas departments (Overseas '' Département s'') and since 2003 also additionally Overseas regions (Overseas '' Régions ''))



Territoires D'outre-mer

(Overseas territories)



Collectivités D'outre-mer

(Overseas collectivities)
This category was created with the constitutional reform on 28 march 2003. Each collectivity has its own statutory law.

  • ''. Its new status of 2004 gives it the particular designation of Pays D'outre-mer (Overseas country), but the Conseil Constitutionnel has judged that it was just a designation, not a particular status.

  • ''. Mayotte has kept its particular designation of collectivité départementale, which is not a particular status. In 2010 its population will have the possibility to become a '' Département D'outre-mer ''.

  • ''. Saint Pierre and Miquelon is still called ''collectivité teritoriale de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon''.

  • ''. Its status still calls it a ''territoire'' (''Territoire des îles Wallis et Futuna), but it may be obsolete (as it referred to the category of ''territoires d'outre-mer'').



Nouvelle-Calédonie

(Collectivity of its own type/unique status)

  • has a unique status and is even not a Collectivité Terrioriale , unlike all other French subdivisions. As a result of the 1998 Nouméa Accord , New Caledonians will vote on an independence referendum scheduled between 2014 and 2019 . This referendum will determine whether the territory remains a part of the French Republic as a Collectivité D'outre-mer , or whether it will become an independent nation. The accords also specify a gradual devolution of powers to the local New Caledonian assembly.



Pays D'outre-mer

(Overseas country)

The status of ''pays d'outre-mer'', projected for French Pacific dependencies, was finally never created. Since its status has no name and since its congress can make ''lois de pays'', New Caledonia is sometimes called a ''pays d'outre-mer''. The 2004 status of French Polynesia gives it this designation, but also recalls that it belongs to the category of ''collectivités d'outre-mer''. The conseil constitutionnel has confirmed the designation of ''pays d'outre-mer'' had no legal consequences.


Minor territories


France also claims or controls a number of small, uninhabited islands in the Indian Ocean ( Îles Éparses ) and one remote island in the Pacific Ocean ( Clipperton Island ):


Indian Ocean



Îles Éparses



Many of these islands are contested with Madagascar .


Pacific Ocean




Further reading

  • Frédéric Monera, L'idée de République et la jurisprudence du Conseil constitutionnel - Paris : L.G.D.J., 2004 -[http://www.lgdj.fr/rech_rapide.php?_Sess=c22f5de9dee93f9554d169596caad970&_Mots=monera&_TypeCode=];



See also




External links