Extract
[...] Finally, one of the ambitions of the reform concerns the completion of the intercommunal map on the entire territory. For this, the law on the reform of territorial collectivities establishes Departmental Schemes for Intercommunal Cooperation (SDCI) to allow the creation, merger or modification of the perimeter of EPCI with their own tax base or obsolete mixed syndicates. To rationalize the territorial organization, isolated municipalities could be attached to an EPCI on the decision of the prefect. Note, however, that, if the Constitutional Council decided that the Departmental Schemes for Intercommunal Cooperation could not be the subject of a review for abuse of power QPC n°2013- April 2013, Puyravault Commune), it recognized that the forced attachment of a municipality to a public establishment of intercommunal cooperation contravened the principle of free administration of territorial collectivities QPC n°2014- April 2014, Thonon-les-Bains Commune) In the same vein, the NOTRe law of August strengthens existing intercommunalities by creating larger structures. [...]
[...] It directly prolongs extends the law of December which consecrates intercommunality and regions as 'drivers of decentralization'29. Thus, the balance of the NOTRe law, although to relativize, is positive for what concerns the regions. The strengthening of regional competences is first done at the economic level. The NOTRe law even consecrates the region, at article as the territorial collectivity 'responsible on its territory [ . ] in economic matters'. For example, the region is now the only competent one for the granting of aid to businesses. [...]
[...] The problem of the distribution of competences between the two orders of jurisdiction to hear disputes related to the location of relay antennas is also raised here. By this decision of May the Conflict Tribunal brings a major clarification to the dispute. The TC first notes that disputes that aim to obtain the relocation of a relay antenna, the interruption of its transmission or its removal fall within the jurisdiction of the administrative court insofar as they are based on the potential effects of the operation of relay antennas on public health or on the quality of reception of messages transmitted by radioelectric frequencies (radio, telephony, television). [...]
[...] For example, Spain is organized into autonomous communities, provinces, and municipalities; Poland into regions, districts, and municipalities, and Germany into Länder, Kreis, and Gemeinde. The department therefore exists elsewhere in Europe and, like in France, responds to a necessary proximity to the territories. There is therefore clearly no French exception from this point of view. Regarding the number of entities in each level, the situation is different. If the three-level organization is common, France stands out mainly by an extremely high number of municipalities. Indeed, France alone represents nearly 40% of the total number of municipalities in the European Union. [...]
[...] In a rather obvious way, this geographical reorganization was accompanied by a reorganization of the decentralized services of the State by a decree of May bearing the charter of decentralization24. It is a matter of adapting the decentralized services to the new structures put in place. Each region then fixes by decree in the Council of State its definitive capital and name before October 2016. In the face of this, the department is losing its existence according to M. Y. [...]
