A (, "community of communes") is a federation of municipalities (communes) in France. It forms a framework within which local tasks are carried out together. It is the least-integrated form of (intercommunality).
, there were 2,400 in France (2,391 in metropolitan France and 9 in the overseas departments), with 26.48 million people living in them. Since then many have been merged or have joined a , a or a . Whereas there were 2,409 in January 2010 and 1,842 in January 2016, there were only 989 left in January 2025. The population of the (2022 population data, 2025 borders) ranged from 106,433 inhabitants (Communauté de communes Le Grésivaudan, covering the area between Grenoble and Chambéry), to 3,986 inhabitants (Communauté de communes du Causse de Labastide-Murat, Lot department).
The was created by a statute of the French Parliament enacted on 6 February 1992. The statute was modified by the Chevènement law of 1999.
Unlike the and the , are not subject to a minimum threshold of population to come into existence. The only constraint is geographical continuity.
According to the (CGCT; general law over regional administrative structures), a is an (EPCI; public establishment of inter-communal cooperation) formed by several French municipalities that cover a connected territory without enclave.
When the Chevènement law regulatory modifications came into force in 1999 already in existence that did not meet the criterion of geographical continuity were left untouched.
The communes involved build a space of solidarity with a joint project for development, infrastructure building, etc.
The are currently funded by local taxes:
The is a modified version of the tax whereby a proportion of the monies levied by the is paid back to the individual communes. The is sometimes presented as an unfair burden on the economy or even as a device for exporting jobs outside France, and it has been subject to a series of reforms over the years but central government undertakings to abolish it (and presumably to replace it) have yet to come to fruition. If they do, funding of the will change fundamentally.
A is administered by a council () made up of delegates from the municipal councils of each member commune. The number of seats allocated to each commune reflects the size of the commune. A member commune must have at least one seat on the council and no individual commune may have more than half of the seats on the .
Article 5214-16 of the CGCT requires the to exercise its responsibilities in the following policy areas:
The may also choose to exercise its responsibilities in at least one of the following six policy areas:
The may define its own personnel requirements and appoint appropriately qualified employees. In addition, and subject to départemental agreement, it may exercise direct powers and responsibilities in certain social policy areas that are more normally handled at the départemental level.
Subject to these requirements, it is for the communes themselves to determine precisely which responsibilities they will delegate to the based on their view of the individual commune's best interests. Once powers and responsibilities have been delegated to the , they shall be exercised collectively through the and may no longer be exercised independently by individual member communes.