The European Collectivity of Alsace (French: Collectivité européenne d'Alsace; Alsatian: D'Europäischa Gebiatskärwerschàft Elsàss; German: Europäische Gebietskörperschaft Elsass[5]) is a territorial collectivity in the Alsace region of France. On 1 January 2021, the departments of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin merged to form a territorial collectivity, but remained part of the Grand Est region. The creation of this new entity was approved by the French Parliament on 25 July 2019 and Law 2019-816, which delimits its powers, was promulgated on 2 August 2019.[2]
Alsatian voters had already voted in favour of the creation of a single territorial collectivity in a referendum in 2013; however, in the less populous of the two departments, Haut-Rhin, a majority of voters had rejected the proposal.[6]
The original Region of Alsace, created in 1956, ceased to exist on 1 January 2016, when the French parliament voted to merge several administrative regions, reducing their number from 22 to 18.[7]
Alsace has an intermediary status: its competencies are those of a department, plus some of the competencies of a region. As a result, Alsace is less autonomous than Corsica or the overseas departments and regions.
While French is the sole official language of the country according to Article 2 of the Constitution of France, Law 2019-816 contains provisions to promote regional languages in schools. The collectivity will also be tasked with creating a Committee related to the Alsatian language and culture, with a focus on the German language spoken in Alsace. This last provision is closely related to Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 of the Aachen Treaty.