Dependencies of Guadeloupe

According to the Constitution of the French Fifth Republic and the guidance law for overseas or Paul's Law (March 18, 2000)[4] established by Congress, every dependency has the choice of upgrading to an overseas collectivity in the 74th article of the French Constitution and to free itself from the Guadeloupean administration if their elected representatives should make the request.

The double insularity provoked by their incorporation into Guadeloupe slows down their development, which remain enclosed, in spite of the enforcement of the French law of territorial continuity.

The absence of a training establishment, centralized in Guadeloupe island, the low rate of new business start-ups, the expensive living costs, and the heavy tax system increase the number of unemployed who are obliged to exodus towards Guadeloupe or metropolitan France to find a job, causing the fast depopulation of these islands.The current political system of the dependencies is strongly inclined towards Guadeloupean politics.

Several study groups were created among which one was concerning local governance, brought to conceive an institutional modification project or to declare a new status for Guadeloupe with or without the emancipation of its last dependencies.

On May 12, 2009, the French overseas Minister, Yves Jégo, at the end of these conferences, came for an official visit to les Saintes for the seminary of the dependencies of Guadeloupe.

He took into account the identical realities and the political hopes of these islands, to improve territorial continuity, to reduce effects of the double-insularity, abolition of Guadeloupean dependence, national representation, development of labor pool attractiveness, the fight against depopulation, the tax system, and the cost of living.