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Saint Martin (France)
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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.
t 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.
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Encyclopedia
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. 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. The new status took effect when the law was published in the Official Journal on February 22, 2007.
Saint Martin remains part of the European Union. The Treaty of Lisbon, which is not yet legally binding, states that Saint-Martin is a part of the EU. 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 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. On August 7, Frantz Gumbs was elected as President of the Territorial Council.
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).
Demographics
The French part of the island has a land area of 53.20 km² (20.5 sq mi). At the January 2006 French census, the population in the French part of the island was 35,263 (up from only 8,072 inhabitants at the 1982 census), which means a population density of 663 inhabitants per km² in 2006.
style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 0.5em"| Historical population| 1885 | 1961 | 1967 | 1974 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2006 | | 3,400 | 4,502 | 5,061 | 6,191 | 8,072 | 28,518 | 29,078 | 35,263 | | 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). 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. In comparison, the GDP per capita on the Dutch side of the island, Sint Maarten, was 14,430 euros in 2004.
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