Section 7: Transformation and merger.

The perimeter of the public establishment for intercommunal cooperation with its own tax status that has decided to transform itself may be extended to municipalities whose inclusion in the community perimeter is likely to ensure the spatial and economic coherence as well as the financial and social solidarity that are necessary for the development of a conurbation community and its evolution into an urban development pole, for the development of an urban community and its evolution into a regional pole or for the development of a metropolis and its evolution into a European pole, as the case may be. It may not, however, include, without their agreement, the member municipalities of a community of municipalities whose eligibility for the grant provided for in the fourth paragraph of II of Article L. 5211-29 has been established under the conditions set out in Article L. 5214-23-1.

The proposed extension of the public establishment's perimeter is decided by the State representative in the department when the municipalities are part of the same department, or by joint decision of the State representatives in the departments concerned when the proposed perimeter extends beyond a single department, after receiving the opinion of the departmental inter-municipal cooperation commission(s) concerned. This opinion is deemed negative if it has not been given within two months. The perimeter may be extended with the agreement of the council of the public establishment and at least two-thirds of the municipal councils of all the municipalities included in the future perimeter and representing more than half of the total population of these municipalities, or at least half of the municipal councils of these municipalities representing two-thirds of the population. This majority must include the municipal council of the municipality with the largest population, where this is greater than a quarter of the total population concerned. In the absence of deliberation within three months of notification of the proposed extension of the perimeter, the agreement is deemed to have been given.

Without prejudice to the provisions of article L. 5217-1, the extension of the perimeter of the public establishment and the transformation of this establishment into another public establishment of intercommunal cooperation are pronounced by the same decree of the representative(s) of the State in the department(s). This decree constitutes the withdrawal of the municipalities from the public establishments for inter-municipal cooperation of which they are members. In the specific case of syndicates of communes or mixed syndicates, the withdrawal takes place under the conditions set out in article L. 5216-7 or to Article L. 5215-22 as appropriate.

The transformation of the public establishment for intercommunal cooperation entails the application to all the property, equipment and public services necessary for the exercise of the transferred competences, as well as the rights and obligations attached to this property, equipment and public services on the date of the transfer, of the provisions of II of article L. 5211-18.