Paris, a semi-presidential republic and France's 18 administrative regions

Background

France's capital is Paris and its official EU language is French. The European Union's country page describes France as a semi-presidential republic with a prime minister, who is the head of government, appointed by the president who is the directly elected head of state. France's territory consists of 18 administrative regions: 13 metropolitan, that is Continental France, and 5 overseas regions. All 5 of the overseas regions, as well as Saint-Martin, a French territory in the Caribbean, are considered part of the EU, with the status of outermost region. Eurostat figures on the same page give France a geographical size of 638 475 square kilometres and a population of 68 635 943. Strasbourg is one of the three official seats of the European institutions; the others are Brussels and Luxembourg City. There are 81 representatives from France in the European Parliament, and France has 24 representatives on the European Economic and Social Committee and 24 representatives on the European Committee of the Regions.