French Pacific To Have Own Euro, MPs By 2009
(Oceania Flash)
The French Pacific countries and territories of New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna are poised to have their own specific representatives within the European Parliament by the next election, scheduled to take place in 2009.
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The French National Assembly (Lower House) earlier this week endorsed an amendment that will allocate a representative for French Overseas Countries and Territories for each of its main three zones of presence: the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific region.
Until now, the French overseas communities were represented by three Euro-MPs (all of those from Réunion island, in the Indian Ocean, which won the vote mainly because it is more populated than the other territories and French overseas dependencies) in the European Parliament in Strasbourg (France), but there was no special provision to ensure each of those three areas were specifically represented.
Under the new provisions, the number of French MPs representing French overseas UPRs will remain the same, but each region (Indian, Atlantic and Pacific oceans) will have one MP each.
In the case of France as a EU member State, the Pacific's three territories (New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna) would have one representative.
French Polynesia's former leader, Gaston Flosse, who is also a member of the French Senate, late last year first tabled the amendment that led to the change in the European representation of French overseas communities.
