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The French Overseas Departments and Territories (often abbreviated DOM-TOM for départements d'outre-mer, territoires d'outre-mer) consist broadly of French-administered territories outside of Europe. These territories have varying legal status and different levels of autonomy, although all have representation in the Parliament of France, and the right to vote in elections to the European Parliament. Some of them have no permanent inhabitants. They include island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, a territory on the South American coast, and several periantarctic islands as well as an extensive claim in Antarctica. Each inhabited French territory, metropolitan or overseas, is represented in both the French National Assembly and the French Senate. Département doutre-mer|Départements doutre-mer or Région doutre-mer|Régions doutre-mer (Overseas departments (Overseas départements) and since 2003 also additionally Overseas regions (Overseas régions)) Territoire doutre-mer|Territoires doutre-mer (Overseas territories) Collectivité doutre-mer|Collectivités doutre-mer (Overseas collectivities) This category was created with the constitutional reform on 28 March 2003. Each collectivity has its own statutory law. Nouvelle-Calédonie or New Caledonia (Collectivity of its own type/unique status) New Caledonia 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 doutre-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): Îles Éparses The first four are claimed by Madagascar, and Tromelin Island is claimed by the Seychelles. Pacific Ocean Inhabited territoiries Uninhabited lands Antarctica Further reading L.G.D.J., 2004 -*; See also Robert Aldrich and John Connell, France's Overseas Frontier, Cambride University Press, 1992 | |||||||
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