Communauté de communes

Communauté de Communes (English: " community of communities " ) called in France an association of several municipalities. Comparable to a German office or Lower Saxony Samtgemeinde it provides a framework to be performed jointly by the municipal tasks.

On 1 January 2005, France had 2,343 Communauté de Communes. They solved largely on the SIVOMs.

Legal status

According to the applicable provisions of the Code général des collectivités territorial ( CGCT ) (English: " General Act on local authorities ") in the 1999 version of the Communauté de communes is a "public institution of inter-municipal cooperation " ( établissement public de coopération intercommunale ) which is formed by several French towns that comprise a contiguous territory without enclave. At the time of entry into force of this provision already existing Communauté de communes that do not include closed territory, but may persist.

The formation of a new Communauté de communes can be both at the initiative of one or more local councils of the participating municipalities, as well as on the initiative of representatives of the central government ( prefect ) in which or the departments in which these communities are done. In the second case, the approval of the Departmental Commission de la coopération intercommunale of or the concerned departments is required. The new Communauté de communes can be created by a decree of the prefect or if the local councils have at least two thirds of the affected municipalities with at least half the population, or at least half of the municipalities agreed with at least two -thirds of the population. A Communauté de communes can be formed for an indefinite period or for a limited time.

Organs

A Communauté de communes headed by a conseil communautaire, whose members are elected by the municipal councils. The distribution of seats is either unanimously decided by agreement between the communities involved, or it may be by the same majority of local councils, which is required for the creation of the Communauté de communes, a distribution of seats proportional to population size are decided. In both cases, each municipality involved must be at least one and may represent more than half of the members.

Competencies and Finance

The Communauté de communes shall in any case the powers of the municipalities involved in issues of regional planning and the inter-community economic development. In addition, they must take at least one of the areas of competence of environmental protection, housing policy, road construction and entertaining, and garbage disposal as well as the construction and maintenance of primary schools and cultural and sports facilities.

The exact powers of the Community shall be decided by the municipal councils of the participating municipalities with the same majority required establishing the Communauté de communes.

The Communauté de communes receive the income from the property tax, flat tax, trade tax and other funding for the tasks assigned to them certain taxes and fees.