A regional council (French: conseil régional) is the elected assembly of a region of France. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Regional councils were created by law on 5 July1972. Originally they were simply consultative bodies consisting of the region's parliamentary representatives plus members nominated by the departments and important municipalities. The decentralisation programme of 1982-1983 transferred some state functions to the regional council. The status of the region and its council was laid down in 1986. July 5 is the 186th day of the year (187th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 179 days remaining. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... The départements (or departments) are administrative units of France, roughly analogous to British counties and are now grouped into 22 metropolitan and four overseas régions. ...
Since 1986 the regional council has been directly elected, councillors being elected by département and serving a mandate of 6 years.