The idea of Greater Paris was originally proposed by French President
Nicolas Sarkozy as "a new global plan for the Paris metropolitan region" It first led to a new transportation master plan for the Paris region and to plans to develop several areas around Paris. The "Métropole du Grand Paris" was defined by the law of 27 January 2014 on the modernization of public territorial action and affirmation of cities as part of Act III of decentralization. The plans were considerably modified in December 2015, and the passage into action in two competences, economic development and protection of the environment was delayed from 2016 to 2017. The plan was first announced on 17 September 2007 during the inauguration of "La Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine", when Sarkozy declared his intent to create a "new comprehensive development project for Greater Paris". The project was organized by the French state, with the
Minister of Culture and Communication charged with coordinating the consultation process. In 2008 an international urban and architectural competition for the future development of metropolitan Paris was launched. Ten teams gathering architects, urban planners, geographers, landscape architects will offer their vision for building a Paris metropolis of the 21st century in the
post-Kyoto era and make a prospective diagnosis for Paris and its suburbs that will define future developments in Greater Paris for the next 40 years. Early versions of the plan proposed reforms to the local government structure of the Paris region by creating an integrated
urban community encompassing the City of Paris and the surrounding
Petite Couronne, however these were largely abandoned due to strong opposition from the socialist Mayor of Paris,
Bertrand Delanoë, and the socialist head of the
Île-de-France region,
Jean-Paul Huchon. ==Objectives==