During the 60s the State decided to create 9 new towns in order to respond to problems of housing and regional planning, these included:
5 in the Parisian region:
- Evry
- Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
- Cergy-Pontoise
- Melun-Sénart
- Marne-la-Vallée

4 in other parts of France:
- Val-de-Reuil (Eure)
- Villeneuve d'Ascq (Nord)
- L'Isle-d'Abeau (Isère)
- Banks of the Etang de Berre (Bouches-du-Rhône)

For each of these new towns the State:

- Prompted the grouping of the relevant municipalities within an intermunicipal cooperative structure: the Syndicat d'Agglomération Nouvelle (SAN).
- Created a public development authority, the Etablissement Public d'Aménagement (EPA), in charge of overseeing all operations which could facilitate new town planning.

The new town of Marne-la-Vallée spans 25 km and includes 4 sectors: Porte de Paris, Val Maubuée, Val de Bussy and Val d'Europe. Urbanisation has taken place from West to East, with Val d'Europe as the newest sector.

Marne-la-Vallée has 257,000 inhabitants for 26 municipalities and already counts 7,000 public and private companies having created over 100,000 jobs.

Marne-la-Vallée:
- Porte de Paris: 3 municipalities - 101,500 inhabitants
- Val Maubuée: 6 municipalities - 86,500 inhabitants
- Val de Bussy: 12 municipalities - 54,500 inhabitants
- Val d'Europe: 5 municipalities - 16,000 inhabitants