Saint Martin (France)
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 February 22, 2007, encompassing the northern parts of the island of Saint Martin and neighbouring islets, the largest of which is Île Tintamarre. The southern part of the island, Sint Maarten, is part of the Netherlands Antilles.
Politics and government
Saint Martin was for many years a French commune forming part of Guadeloupe, which is an overseas région and overseas 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.[2] On February 9, 2007, the French Parliament passed a bill granting COM status to both the French part of Saint Martin and neighbouring Saint Barthélemy.[3] The new status took effect when the law was published in the Official Journal on February 22, 2007.[4] Saint Martin remains part of the European Union, as explicitly stated in the Treaty of Lisbon.[5] Saint Martin is the most westerly point of the EU.
The new governance structure befitting an overseas collectivity took effect on July 15, 2007 with the first session of the Territorial Council (French: Conseil territorial) and the election of Louis-Constant Fleming as president of the Territorial Council. On July 25, 2008 Fleming resigned after being sanctioned by the Conseil d'État for one year over problems with his 2007 election campaign[6]. On August 7, Frantz Gumbs was elected as President of the Territorial Council[7].
Before 2007, Saint Martin was coded as GP (Guadeloupe) in ISO 3166-1. In October 2007, it received the ISO 3166-1 code MF (alpha-2 code), MAF (alpha-3 code), and 663 (numeric code).[8]
[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the 1 July and 8 July 2007 Saint Martin Territorial Council election results
| Parties |
1st round |
2nd round |
Seats |
| Votes |
% |
Votes |
% |
| Union for Progress/UMP (Union pour le Progrès, Louis Constant-Fleming) |
2,829 |
40.35 |
3,753 |
48.96 |
16 |
| Rally Responsibility Success (Rassemblement responsabilité réussite, Alain Richardson) |
2,237 |
31.90 |
3,231 |
42.15 |
6 |
| Succeed Saint Martin (Réussir Saint-Martin, Jean-Luc Hamlet) |
767 |
10.94 |
681 |
8.89 |
1 |
| Alliance (Alliance, Dominique Riboud) |
635 |
9.05 |
— |
— |
— |
| Democratic Alliance for Saint Martin (Alliance démocratique pour Saint-Martin, Wendel Cocks) |
544 |
7.76 |
— |
— |
— |
| Total |
7,012 |
100.00 |
7,665 |
100.00 |
23 |
| Source: RFO1, RFO2 |
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Politics of North America |
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| Sovereign states |
Antigua and Barbuda · Bahamas · Barbados · Belize · Canada · Costa Rica · Cuba · Dominica · Dominican Republic · El Salvador · Grenada · Guatemala · Haiti · Honduras · Jamaica · Mexico · Nicaragua · Panama1 · Saint Kitts and Nevis · Saint Lucia · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Trinidad and Tobago1 · United States
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Dependencies and
other territories |
Anguilla · Aruba1 · Bermuda · British Virgin Islands · Cayman Islands · Clipperton Island · Greenland · Guadeloupe · Martinique · Montserrat · Netherlands Antilles1 · Puerto Rico · Saint Barthélemy · Saint Martin · Saint Pierre and Miquelon · Turks and Caicos Islands · United States Virgin Islands
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| 1 Territories also in or commonly reckoned elsewhere in the Americas (South America). |
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Demographics
The French part of the island has a land area of 53.20 km² (20.5 sq mi). At the October 2004 supplementary French census, the population in the French part of the island was 33,102 (up from only 8,072 inhabitants at the 1982 census), which means a population density of 622 inhabitants per km² in 2004.
Historical population
| 1885 |
1961 |
1967 |
1974 |
1982 |
1990 |
1999 |
2004 |
| 3,400 |
4,502 |
5,061 |
6,191 |
8,072 |
28,518 |
29,078 |
33,102 |
| Official figures from French censuses. |
Economy
The official currency of Saint Martin is the euro, though the US dollar is also widely accepted. Tourism is the main economic activity.
INSEE estimated that the total GDP of Saint Martin amounted to 421 million euros in 1999 (US$449 million at 1999 exchanges rates; US$599 million at Oct. 2007 exchange rates).[9] In that same year the GDP per capita of Saint Martin was 14,500 euros (US$15,500 at 1999 exchanges rates; US$20,600 at Oct. 2007 exchange rates), which was 39% lower than the average GDP per capita of metropolitan France in 1999.[9] In comparison, the GDP per capita on the Dutch side of the island, Sint Maarten, was 14,430 euros in 2004.[10]
Maps
Map showing the former constituent parts of the
Guadeloupe region/department among the Leeward Islands, including Saint-Martin, before February 2007.
Detailed map showing French Saint-Martin (north), including its territorial waters.
Map showing French Saint-Martin (north) and Dutch Sint Maarten (south).
See also
Flags flying in Marigot harbour, Saint-Martin.
- Culture of St. Martin
- History of St. Martin
- Saint Martin, the island itself
- O sweet Saint-Martin's Land (bi-national song/anthem of Saint-Martin/Sint-Maarten)
- List of Sint Maarten governors
References
- ↑ World factbook Saint Martin
- ↑ Staff reporter (2003-12-09). "French Caribbean voters reject change" (HTML) (in english), Caribbean Net News. Retrieved on 2007-02-09. "However voters on the two tiny French dependencies of Saint-Barthelemy and Saint-Martin, which have been administratively attached to Guadeloupe, approved the referendum and are set to acquire the new status of "overseas collectivity"."
- ↑ Staff reporter (2007-02-09). "Saint-Barth To Become An Overseas Collectivity" (PDF) (in english), St. Barth Weekly, p. 2. Retrieved on 2007-02-09.
- ↑ Les élections du futur conseil territorial font débat - Politique - Nouvelles sur Newmedia.fr - New Media : Infos Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, Saint-Martin, Saint-Barthelémy, Caraïbes - Infos Newmedia.fr
- ↑ "Treaty of Lisbon, Article 2, points 287 and 293". Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- ↑ Staff reporter (2008-07-28). "Louis-Constant Fleming démissionné par le conseil d’Etat" (in french), fxgpariscaraibe. Retrieved on 2008-08-17.
- ↑ Staff reporter (2008-08-08). "Frantz Gumbs elected new president of Collectivité", The Daily Herald. Retrieved on 2008-08-17. "Frantz Gumbs, formerly president of Union Pour le Progrès (UPP) party, swept into power as new president of the Collectivité at an extraordinary meeting of the Territorial Council on Thursday after winning the 23-councillor vote with a clear majority over Marthe Ogoundélé-Tessi."
- ↑ ISO 3166-1 Newsletter. Assignment of code elements for Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin and update of France and other French Territories
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 (French) INSEE, CEROM. "Estimation du PIB de Saint-Barthélemy et de Saint-Martin" (PDF). Retrieved on 2007-11-13.
- ↑ Total 2004 GDP of Sint Maarten ([1]) divided by the number of inhabitants in 2004 ([2]), then converted from Netherlands Antillean gulden to euro by using the 2004 exchange rate.
See also
 Overseas departments and territories of France |
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Inhabited areas |
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Overseas departments1
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Overseas collectivities
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Special status
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Uninhabited areas |
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| Pacific Ocean |
Clipperton Island
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French Southern and
Antarctic Lands |
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Scattered islands in
the Indian Ocean
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Bassas da India3 · Europa Island3 · Glorioso Islands2, 3, 4 · Juan de Nova Island3 · Tromelin Island5
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| 1 Also known as overseas regions. 2 Claimed by Comoros. 3 Claimed by Madagascar. 4 Claimed by Seychelles. 5 Claimed by Mauritius. |
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