What future for the regions?

France’s regions could soon have more autonomy than ever before – but could also become mere managers of EU funds, warns Maud Vuillardot

France is about to take on the six-month rotating EU presidency, but as far as the regions are concerned, it could be argued that France lags well behind many of its European partners. Although the once “united and indivisible Republic” has become, since 2003, a decentralised republic, there is little clear evidence to show that the balance of power between central government and local authorities has shifted in any significant way. The centre-right UMP-led government in Paris is increasingly at loggerheads with the regional governments, the majority of which are run by the centre-left PS, especially over the issue of spending: the ‘profligacy’ of the regions, viewed from Paris, is causing a major headache for the central government when it comes to balancing the accounts. Furthermore, the regions have become increasingly bullish, taking it upon themselves to ‘legislate’ in areas where the central government should normally have the final word.

Following the regional elections in 2004 which saw the PS take control of 20 of the 22 metropolitan regions, the left-right rift has led to a steady deterioration in the relationship between the central and regional governments (and the situation is worse still between the central and local authorities). But this masks the real problem: the regions of France are a relatively new creation and, perhaps naturally, are seeking to garner as much power for themselves as they can; the central government, on the other hand, is keen to draw attention away from the empty public coffers by seeming to be taking the lead on regional development, while at the same time taking a back seat in the development of certain policy areas.

There are currently four levels of governance in France : central government, regions, départements and communes. Changes to the law in 1992 and 1999 led to the introduction of a fifth level: intercommunal cooperation. Is it any wonder, then, that France is often accused of having too many layers of bureaucracy, and that this ‘institutional complexity’ is a major drain on public finances. Although communes and départements were created during the French Revolution, the regions are altogether more recent: from their early days in the 1960s as simple groupings of départements for administrative purposes, they became a fully-fledged layer of government, with their own legislative powers, in 1982.

The first full elections for regional councillors came four years later. But real decentralisation, with the central government handing over certain powers (and the corresponding funds) to elected regional assemblies, only really began to take place between 2002 and 2004. The regions are obliged to ensure a certain number of services (that were previously met by central government) but they also have some room for manoeuvre to legislate as they see fit in other areas

For example, since 2004, regions are responsible for coordinating economic policies within their territories, as well as for planning, education, professional training and cultural activities. They are free to spend their money in these areas as they like, with the cash raised through direct and indirect taxes, support from central government, loans and other sources such as EU structural funds. But spending remains a major bone of contention, especially as the regions claim that while the central government has transferred certain obligations on them, it has not provided enough money for these obligations to be met – a claim denied by Paris. Despite this, there are many areas where real progress has been made by the regions since 1982: training, equipment for schools, economic growth and, more recently, rail networks, have all benefited from decentralisation.

Programmes are drawn up jointly with the central government for a period of six years, and for 2007-13 they will coincide with the EU structural fund programming period for the first time. However, the regions do not have control over structural funds – despite the fact that a 2004 law opens up that possibility and the fact that all the regions want to do so. While decentralisation has begun, there seems to be little willingness on the part of the central government to hand over control of the purse strings.

Many of France’s neighbours have regions with a considerable amount of autonomy (Spain and Germany for example), and EU cohesion policy recognises the role of the regions as important stakeholders in territorial cooperation across the continent, and pressure is growing in France to allow the regions to shake off the shackles of central government once and for all. The current government says it wants to “take a break from the handing over of new powers” to local and regional authorities in order to clarify the current state of play. At the same time, there has been a reorganisation of the central government’s role at the regional level, with greater power being given to the ‘préfet’ of each region.

The préfet has the power to impose the central government’s agenda in the regions in key areas such as planning and social and economic development, and the new rules will also give him authority over the heads of each département within the region. The hope is that these changes will make it easier to coordinate actions in these key areas, where national and regional priorities were often at odds in the past.

But with the next round of regional elections looming in 2010, will this petty ‘bickering’ between politicians, which so plagues modern France, mask the real – and very important – question of whether we actually need autonomous regions at all. Will they be better placed to respond to the challenges of tomorrow – competitiveness, jobs and territorial cohesion – through policies and choices tailored to the needs of their local citizens? That still remains to be seen.