The Urban Centre and the Single Community of Iparralde are the last names of the institution to be set up for Iparralde. In fact, the name of the new institution is indeterminate today. The lack of definition expresses the nature and complex structure of the institution. The Urola Kosta Commonwealth, among others, is also called the Single Commonwealth of Basque Municipalities. Also, in the last three years, the demand of the social agents that meet in Batasuna has been the Territorial Community, called the Territorial Community. In the past, all these Basque institutions or colleges were proclaimed as the Basque Department. By name, there are many agents working by their own institution. The social partners meet in the Development Council and the political actors in the Council of elected representatives. In all political parties there are members of the institution – all the Basque parties – but not all parties are in favour of giving an institutional framework to Ipar Euskal Herria, especially the French. The Batera Citizen Platform is working in particular for its own institution.

From the Department to the Territorial Community: now the Commonwealth is the cry

In order to understand the evolution of the claim of the Basque institution, it is necessary to go back to 1999. In Baiona there was a major demonstration in favour of the Department of Culture and Linguistic Policy. The call brought together for the first time many electos.Desde then, in 2002, Batera was born. In addition to claiming the Basque Department, he claimed the Basque Country, the university and its own structures in favor of the Chamber of Agriculture. The majority of the population fully understood what these demands are. However, in 2009, a new process began in France, culminating in the withdrawal of the aircraft. The process would lead to the disappearance of the Department. Consequently, their powers would be transferred to the regions (regions). In the case of the Basques, the Department of the Atlantic Pyrenees would be integrated into the Aquitaine Region. At that time the right was governed in the state, and today the left was. In any case, whatever the power in which it is, Governments have placed the process within the policy of decentralization.

This reform, called decentralization, aims at the State redistributing and adapting the Department ' s competences between regions and local communities. After an internal reflection, Batera, seeing that the French Government wanted to build new regional political frameworks, decided to replace the Department ' s request with a new structure. The moment was a milestone: 35,000 people participated in the popular consultation in 2010. Batera undertook a profound pedagogical struggle to move from asking the Department to ask the Territorial Community. We must remember the poor organisation of the popular consultation. The question was as follows: “Are you for or against the Territorial Community?” Together they went on to proclaim a new institution of special status.

However, in 2013, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said: "No more special status institutions will be created in the Hexagon. However, in current public law there are structures to respond to your demands.” Paris roundly rejected the institution of special status, the Territorial Community. The Union was left with two options: either to remain in the conflict or to seize the opportunities offered by the State. Batera's objective is to form the Single Commonwealth of Iparralde, the Commonwealth of Iparralde. However, it does not rule out that the Territorial Community will have its objective in this sense. In the last three years, thousands of people have concentrated on the streets of Baiona and Maule in this regard. The social partners have moved from calling on the Territorial Community to asking the Commonwealth.

Basque/French College, selected name

The Government, through Prefect André Durand, asked the electorate to choose among these five proposals: Urban centre: Colegio, Colegio Público, Polo Metropolitano, Territorial Balance or Structure Pays actual. The latter withdrew immediately, because there are anticuado.Entre the others, Batasuna is the Commonwealth that wants, and also what the social partners want.

The Ipar Euskal Herriko Elkargoa initiative began to develop in line with the Prefect’s proposal in June last year under the NOTRE law. This legal regulation is the one that can give the institution the most competences and finances. That is what the jurists proposed to the elect. The proposal has been prepared by the representatives of the Public Schools, being the elected representatives of the municipalities.

The Casco Urbano and the possibilities of the Mancomunidad Urola Kosta have been the protagonists, but they have aroused many debates. On the road to the so-called city center, the law seems to offer useful competencies. At the time of moving from the current Public Schools to Urban or Urban Schools, the number of inhabitants is an “obstacle” or “key”. Apparently, the law offers more flexible routes for the management of the Casco. Another obstacle is the restructuring of the Aquitaine region. From 2016 onwards, Aquitaine Poitu-Charente-Limosuin will become a new region. If the population of the Basque Country, due to its small number, was previously “fused”, it will be more fused in the new region.

The initiative in favour of the institution of Ipar Euskal Herria is focused, in a way, on the policy of Bordeaux, and in the background conditioned by the construction of the new Region. The Law facilitates the choice of the structure of Casco. They say that if an urban center were to be built, that institution would have a more direct relationship with the state administration. At this point, in the negotiation of the Territorial Contract that links the State, the Region and the Department, the Urban Center would enter directly. In the case of the Public College, negotiation or dialogue would be more difficult. The Colegio Público should compete with other urban centres in the Comarca (others could be created). On the other hand, during the first year the Hirigunea initiative would receive EUR 10 million of funding from the state. That is, even if the will of the Commonwealth is the priority of the local electorate, that amount is 60 per cent of the budget of the people ' s houses. Are they going to put it on? Therefore, when it comes to choosing the City Centre or Public College, the form of funding will influence the votes of the electorate. The question is: Is the Commonwealth the most suitable for Basque citizenship?

The creation of the new institution is scheduled for 2017. However, this structure does not consist of immediate competences. A two-year transition will be needed to reach a new institution from the current institutions. The prefect ' s document being analysed by the electorate proposes a gradual structuring: the people are on the bottom. In the centre, public spatial planning structures. The Public College should appear at the top. Among these three levels, therefore, experts consider the need for a legal instrument. At best, Ipar Euskal Herria will not see the institution he needs completed until 2020.

Coastal and inland imbalance

The new institutional structure – the organisation of an institution of its own – must overcome the problem of demographic imbalance in the territory in order for it to be governable. Governance, competences and funding are the core issues. The proposals on governance to be drawn up by the electorate are as follows: the first requirement is that 158 be grouped into a single urban structure. The structure must be effective and balanced. Otherwise, small towns in the interior would not have the power of powerful coastal cities. Following the meetings held so far, the jurists have proposed to the electorate a three-level college, managed by the Collegiate Council, the Standing Committee and the Auzapezes Assembly. The Collegiate Council, composed of 232 members, will have a decisive power. Behind this advice would be the Auzapez Assembly, which would have 150 mayors and mayors. There would also be the Development Council, that is, representatives of civil society. The Standing Committee of this Collegiate Council would be the executive power, composed of the President, fifteen Vice-Presidents and 60 members. In any event, the proposal provides for the Council of Colleges to have the greatest decision-making capacity of the three Councils. For example, the budget would be decided by that Council. Similarly, in order to overcome the democratic problem, the 72 seats of the Council would be chosen on the basis of the demographic weight of the peoples, that is, by adapting the influence of the different peoples to their obligations. That is particularity.

The proposal, once the schools of today’s peoples are grouped together into a single college, warns of the danger that the electorate will stay away from the people. In order to solve this problem, the proposal makes it possible to set up a commission by the Management Territory. At present, there are ten communities of the peoples, so there would be ten committees. However, although the current map of the College is divided into ten territories, in practice the communities of the peoples would focus on six territorial areas. Four territories of Lapurdi and one of Baja Navarra and Zuberoa. Among its first functions, they should respond to the problems of “civil society” and be endorsed by the Development Council. Competences and the tax system are the departments to be defined in order to form a new institution.

The College of the Northern Basque Country or Bacon?

The proposal is a roadmap: Urban Center or Public College? That is the question. In fact, when it has been seen that the majority of the elects may be the Commonwealth, the idea that the will of the Sub-Prefect is being given a majority has been extended. It should not be forgotten that last July the mayors of Angelu, Biarritz, Bidart and Bokale (ACBA/Euskal Costa-Aturri agglomeration) were imposed on the Commonwealth – the exception in the Baiona metropolis is Jean-René Etchegaray. Undoubtedly, the attitude of these neighbors has favored the Casco option: “Casco Urbano La Mancomunidad offers the possibility to make adaptations. That would reassure some voters,” the prefect said recently.

Therefore, Herri Elkargoa's option has been advanced by the idea of an Urban Center in autumn. On 27 September, Prefect André Durand defended this option at the General Assembly of the Council of Elects, where he was presented to a hundred defendants in the town of Itsasu. For example, Dijon would somehow be the city proposed by the prefect. Capital of the region of Burgundy and of the department of Côte d’Or. However, there is an autonomous community or territory in France. Corsica was the first to obtain this institution.