The French Territorial Reform of the Regions: Objectives, Risks and Challenges for some Forgotten Territories
Résumé
Remapping and merging the Regions with one another, redefining the role of the departments, promoting the grouping of municipalities, creating metropolitan areas, reducing the local authorities' expenditure, improving citizen proximity and involving them in the decision-making process in a more effective way: these were the expectations of the NOTRe law, which has overhauled the territorial organisation of the French Republic. The purpose of this article is to review the reasons which led to this territorial reform, in order to highlight the discrepancies between the announced objectives and reality, and specifically to show the challenges the French regions will have to face in the future.