Saint-Martin

by Paul Bacsich

For entities in Saint-Martin see Category:Saint-Martin

Saint-Martin (French: Saint-Martin), officially the Collectivity of Saint Martin (French: Collectivité de Saint-Martin) is an overseas collectivity of France located in the Caribbean.

It came into being on 15 July 2007, encompassing the northern parts of the island of Saint Martin and neighbouring islets. (The southern part of the island, St Maarten, is part of the Netherlands Antilles which in turn is part of the Netherlands.)

History

Saint-Martin was for many years a French commune forming part of Guadeloupe, which is an overseas région and département of France and is therefore in the European Union. In 2003 the population of the French part of the island voted in favour of secession from Guadeloupe in order to form a separate overseas collectivity (COM) of France. On 9 February 2007, the French Parliament passed a bill granting COM status to both the French part of Saint Martin and neighbouring Saint Barthélemy. The new status took effect once the local assembly was elected on 15 February 2007. Saint-Martin remains part of the European Union.

The new governance structure befitting an overseas collectivity took effect on 15 July 2007 with the first session of the Territorial Council (French: Conseil territorial).

Before 2007, Saint-Martin was coded as GP (Guadeloupe) in ISO 3166-1. In October 2007, it received the ISO 3166-1 code MF.

Saint-Martin has a population of 35,000.

Its capital is Marigot.

Education

There seems to be no information in English on this topic.

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For OER policies and projects in Saint-Martin see Saint-Martin/OER

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