1st January 2016: France wakes up to 13 metropolitan regions instead of 22 – what does it mean for those of us who holiday in France or are expats in France?
New Region Changes in France
The French Government are working on a series of reforms to simplify daily life in France with a number of changes to the law and regulations for business. One of the biggest of the changes is the merging of some of the regions. Instead of 22 regions, there will now only be 13. There are no changes to the departments but some will become part of a different region.
The reason given for these changes is to help councils and Government plan more strategically, pool resources and cut costs. Boundaries have been redrawn and 13 “super regions” will now come into play. The above map illustrates the changes.
Which regions in France are unchanged?
Brittany, Corsica, Centre Val de Loire, Île-de-France, Pays de la Loire and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA) will remain unchanged,
Which regions in France changed in 2016?
The following regions will be joined together to form larger regions:
• Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine
• Aquitaine, Limousin and Poitou-Charentes
• Auvergne and Rhône-Alpes;
• Burgundy and Franche-Comté
• Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées
• Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy
• Upper and Lower Normandy
The changes to the previous 22 metropolitan regions of France are unlikely to have any impact on holiday makers. For expats in France, it will mean regional name changes on paperwork in the first instance. Some estate agents say it may mean changes to taxes in the longer term if one of the previous regions had significantly different charges from a region it has now merged with, we’ll have to wait and see.
For those seeking to buy in France, the changes to what amounts to an administrative boundary won’t have an effect as buyers tend to base their requirements on locality rather than by region.
