However, there is great diversity among them, ranging from 10 952 000 in Ile-de-France to 710 000 in Limousin. The central government is represented by a regional prefect in parallel to the elected regional council. Following changes from the Law NOTRe in 2015 which involved new competences for regions, there was a merger from 22 regions to 13 in 2016 (Charbit and Romano, 2017[nj). More specifically, the region’s responsibilities can be described as follows: regional planning, co-ordinating economic development, vocational training, high schools (OECD, 2007, p. 75[isi).