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Midi-Pyrénées

Coordinates: 43°30′N 1°20′E / 43.500°N 1.333°E / 43.500; 1.333
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Template:Infobox French region Midi-Pyrénées (French: [midi piʁene] ⓘ; Occitan: Miègjorn-Pirenèus or Mieidia-Pirenèus) is the largest region of metropolitan France by area, larger than the Netherlands or Denmark.

Midi-Pyrénées has no historical or geographical unity. It is one of the regions of France created artificially in the late 20th century to serve as a hinterland and zone of influence for its capital, Toulouse, one of a handful of so-called "balancing metropolises" (métropoles d'équilibre)[1]. Another example of this is the region of Rhône-Alpes which was created as the region for Lyon.

The name chosen for the new region was decided by the French central government without reference to the historical provinces (too many of them inside the region) and based purely on geography: Midi (i.e. "southern regions") - Pyrénées (Pyrénées mountains that are the southern limit of the region). The French adjective and name of the inhabitants of the region is: Midi-Pyrénéen.

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Economy of Midi-Pyrénées

Midi-Pyrénées is the largest region of France. It occupies a strategic position between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. In 2006 its total GDP was 87,915 billions $ for a population of 2,755,000 people. It had a GDP/capita of $32,519 a year with an unemployment of 8.9%, the GDP per employment was equal to $80,103 a year. The economy of Midi-Pyrénées can be divided into three sectors.

Primary sector: Because of its size Midi-Pyrénées has the largest number of farms of all France with 60,000 farms in active use. It has also the largest amount of land readily usable with 2.6 million hectares. This is however being reduced by both the increasing population and the CAP. The departments of the Gers, Aveyron, Lot and Tarn-et-Garonne have the most significant agriculural activity of the region. Wine production has suffered in recent years from declining demand, reducing prices and over-production. There are 19 AOC wines in the region. A policy of merging producers into wider groups has been initiated.

Secondary sector: The second largest part of the industrial production of the region is the food industry. 4.6bn Euros are generated each year agriculture. It is however evolving as it received the fourth largest amount of foreign investment of France and is the region of France that created the largest number of entreprises in 2005 with 14,398 new entreprises. Excluding the construction and civil engineering field the secondary sector uses 15% of the regional ressources. There are several groups who have important offices and structures in the region like: Airbus, EADS, Alcatel, Siemens, Bosch and Pierre Fabre. Aerospace industry is an important source of income for the region and employs 57,000 people not to mention all the surrounding entreprises (more than 3,000) which work on the engineering, electronic, telecommunication and computing infrastructure for this industry. However there is a large restructuring plan ongoing and about 10,000 new jobs are expected to be lost outright and partners will be regrouped into larger entities.

Tertiary sector: The region has been behind the other French regions for a long time on services. However this has changed a lot in the recent years and there are many important consulting and telemarketing companies based in the area or with important offices, such as France Telecom, IBM and CapGemini. It is Toulouse, the largest city and capital, that currently concentrates the largest amount of employment however with the progressive extensions of transportation this has been grown considerably in recent years. In late 2006 a large plan was initiated to replace older train, the circulation of regional train has kept on increasing and has now reach the amount of ten million journeys each year. With 80,000 students and 15,000 scientists divided into 400 laboratories the region ranks in France's top three for scientific research. Technology transfers to small-business-entreprises is therefore substantial. Tourism is an important source of incomes for the region, partly due to a sunny climate and the presence of the Pyrénées. It is well known for its gastronomy and quality of life. Aside of casual tourism the small town of Lourdes, because of religious pilgrimage, is France's second largest tourist destination after Paris and has more hotels than any other city but Paris.

Future of the region

The administrative division of France is currently in debate. Many think that the communes are too small and should be merged, that the departments are outdated and should disappear, and that the regions are too small and too numerous (22 in metropolitan France) and should be merged. Regarding Midi-Pyrénées, there are two thoughts:

There are those who stress the Aquitainian nature of Midi-Pyrénées, often referring to Midi-Pyrénées as being mostly made up of Gascony, minimizing the importance of Languedoc in the region. The Midi-Pyrénées and Aquitaine regions share a common destiny it is explained, linked by the Garonne River, and were artificially separated. It is thus proposed to merge the two regions into a large region of southwest France. There have even been talks about building a single international airport of southwest France that would be located half-way between Toulouse and Bordeaux (capital of the Aquitaine region), which are 240 km. (150 miles) from each other. Without entering into the debate over whether such a distant airport would make any sense at all, it is quite clear that merging both regions would create strong rivalries between Toulouse and Bordeaux, which are competitors economically speaking, not to mention the almost impossible task of choosing which of the two cities should become the capital of the new region.

On the other hand, there are those who stress the past of Toulouse, referring to the former County of Toulouse which extended to the Mediterranean Coast, and who would like to merge Midi-Pyrénées with Languedoc-Roussillon in order to create a large Languedoc region. This indeed would reunify the old province of Languedoc, which was split between Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon, and it would also make sense historically speaking, creating a region roughly corresponding to the old county of Toulouse. There also seems to be less economic competition between Toulouse and the cities of Languedoc-Roussillon. However, political leaders of Montpellier (capital of Languedoc-Roussillon) may disagree with the merger, opposed to losing their status of regional capital in favor of Toulouse, and loath to have Toulouse dominate the Mediterranean coast after it has dominated Midi-Pyrénées for more than 30 years already. Also, people in Roussillon, with their distinct Catalan culture, might object to being incorporated into a very large Languedoc region where their identity could become diluted.

The debate is still going on, and there will probably be no changes in the boundaries of French regions for some time. What is sure is that Midi-Pyrénées, located half-way between the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts, shares aspects of both worlds, and cannot be easily classified as either Mediterranean or Atlantic, being more a blend of the two.

Major communities

See also

Notes

  1. ^ In the 1960s, eight large regional cities of France (Toulouse, Lille, Nancy, Strasbourg, Lyon, Nantes, Bordeaux, and Marseille) were made "balancing metropolises", receiving special financial and technical help from the French government in order to counterbalance the excessive weight of Paris inside France.
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43°30′N 1°20′E / 43.500°N 1.333°E / 43.500; 1.333

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