The French overseas collectivities (French: collectivité d'outre-mer or COM), like the French regions are first-order administrative divisions of France. The COMs include some former French overseas territories and other French overseas entities with a particular status, all of which became COMs by constitutional reform on 28 March 2003.
As of 31 March 2011, there were five COMs:
- French Polynesia became a COM in 2003. Its statutory law of 27 February 2004 gives it the designation of Overseas country inside the Republic (French: pays d'outre-mer au sein de la République, or POM), but without legal modification of its status. French Polynesia has a great degree of autonomy, two symbolic manifestations of which are the title of the President of French Polynesia (Le président de la Polynésie française) and its additional designation as a pays d'outre-mer. Legislature: Assembly of French Polynesia.
- Saint Barthélemy, an island in the Lesser Antilles.
- Saint Martin, the northern part of the island of Saint Martin in the Lesser Antilles. Saint Martin remains part of the European Union.
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. It has a territorial council.
- Wallis and Futuna, three small islands in the Pacific Ocean and the only inhabited part of France that is not divided into communes.
Mayotte was a COM from 1976 until 2011, when it became on March 31, 2011 a DOM.