First year

IDEA VFA Handbook

In France, since 1948 citizens abroad have been provided withrepresentation in the Senate, and since 1983 this has amounted to 12 seats.However, it is important to emphasize that these 12 senators are not chosen inany direct way by the French abroad; instead they are selected by a collegemade up of 150 elected members out of the 183 who make up the High Council ofFrench Citizens Abroad (Conseil Sup?rieur des Fran?ais de l’Etranger, CSFE,also created in 1948), which represents before the French government some 2million French citizens resident abroad. The 150 members of that council aredirectly elected by voters abroad.