| Conventional Long Name: | European Collectivity of Alsace |
| Native Name: | Collectivité européenne d'Alsace (French) |
| Common Name: | Alsace |
| Status: | Collectivity of the French Republic |
| Alt Map: | Location of Alsace in the european part of the French Republic |
| Capital: | Strasbourg |
| Coordinates: | 48.5833°N 52°W |
| Largest City: | capital |
| Languages Type: | Official language |
| Languages: | French |
| Languages2 Type: | Regional languages |
| Languages2: | Alsatian Welche Meridional Frankish Rhine Frankish |
| Demonym: | Alsatian |
| Leader Title1: | President of the Assembly |
| Leader Name1: | Frédéric Bierry[1] |
| Legislature: | Assembly of Alsace |
| Established Event1: | Creation |
| Established Date1: | 1 January 2021[2] |
| Area Km2: | 8280 |
| Area Label: | Total |
| Population Census: | 1,919,745[3] [4] |
| Population Census Year: | 2021 |
| Iso3166code: | FR-6AE |
The European Collectivity of Alsace (French: Collectivité européenne d'Alsace; Swiss German; Alemannic; Alsatian: D'Europäischa Gebiatskärwerschàft Elsàss; German: Europäische Gebietskörperschaft Elsass[5]) is a territorial collectivity in the Alsace region of France. On 1 January 2021, the departments of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin merged to form a territorial collectivity, but remained part of the Grand Est region. The creation of this new entity was approved by the French Parliament on 25 July 2019 and Law 2019-816, which delimits its powers, was promulgated on 2 August 2019.
Alsatian voters had already voted in favour of the creation of a single territorial collectivity in a referendum in 2013; however, in the less populous of the two departments, Haut-Rhin, a majority of voters had rejected the proposal.[6]
See main article: History of Alsace.
The original Region of Alsace, created in 1956, ceased to exist on 1 January 2016, when the French parliament voted to merge several administrative regions, reducing their number from 22 to 18.[7]
Alsace has an intermediary status: its competencies are those of a department, plus some of the competencies of a region. As a result, Alsace is less autonomous than Corsica or the overseas departments and regions.
While French is the sole official language of the country according to Article 2 of the Constitution of France, Law 2019-816 contains provisions to promote regional languages in schools. The collectivity will also be tasked with creating a Committee related to the Alsatian language and culture, with a focus on the German language spoken in Alsace. This last provision is closely related to Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 of the Aachen Treaty.