For the first time, the Council of Elected Representatives plans to discuss the institutionalrequests of the Northern Basque Country, which is under French jurisdiction and not currently recognized as an official entity. The Chairman of the Council is willing to explore a variety of possible types of recognition that France could accord the Basque region. These include: creating a Northern Basque ‘department’; establishing institutions with greater powers than a department; or, instead of its own administration, the creation of a union of towns within the department. Exploring the different possibilities is expected to take six months to a year.
