Government
One Governing Body to Rule Metro Paris
The new Grand Paris council will unite local officials from city and suburb alike to make joint decisions that affect the region.
After years of debate, protest, skepticism and compromise, the city of Paris finally got its first overarching governing body on January 1, 2016.
Called the Métropole du Grand Paris (the “Metropolis of Greater Paris”), this new institution will bring together officials from all the Paris metropolitan area’s different municipalities to make joint decisions affecting the entire city. Working to fully connect one of Europe’s more notoriously fragmented capitals, the group could help to overcome the divisions that have long seen Paris’ historic core rigidly separated from its suburbs, and its suburbs from each other. It will also, as the French press admits, help the city compete with its better-integrated rival, London.