Comments on: Europe’s most far-flung enclave

By: Karis Muller

Karis Muller — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 12:52:19 +0000

Teh French TOM unlike the DOM are not in the EU, but their French inhabitants vote in European elections. ( Non French EU inhabitants of French Polynesia, Wallis and New Caledonia cannot vote so here we have two classes of Euro citizens, which should be illegal!) And the French TOM differ from the people of the Falklands and the Dutch Overseas Countries in the Caribbean since these latter have European passports also but cannot vote for the EP. Thus the TOM French vote for a Parliament whose laws do not apply to them. No wonder turnout is low! Finally, the euro is used only in the DOM, (plus in Mayotte and Miquelon) not in the extra-EU TOM. There is an island called Sint Maarten/St Martin which is half Dutch and half French and one half is EU and one half is not… but it is all one customs area… and the currency seems to be the US dollar. Gibraltar is partly in the EU; it has just been condemned by Brussels because of its off shore financial advantages. So it is all rather quaint legally.

By: euro-correspondent

euro-correspondent — Wed, 05 May 2004 23:15:06 +0000

Just a point on the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands - they’re not part of the EU, in fact they’re not even part of the UK, rather they are dependencies of the British Crown. But then Monaco is not part of the EU either, nor, I think, is the Vatican, though both Monaco and the Vatican have adopted the euro as a result of their monetary union with France and Italy respectively. The French Overseas Territories, meanwhile, are fully eligible for Structural Fund assistance (and they get a fair chunk), as are the Azores.

By: Young Fogey

Young Fogey — Tue, 04 May 2004 19:42:55 +0000

St. Helena is a Crown Colony, the same status as Gibraltar, so the answer is YES.

Nope, of the UK overseas territories, only Gibraltar is in the EU.

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 03 May 2004 00:33:05 +0000

I’m still waiting for the light to shine on Europe. Wake up, peeps. They’re taking the best and only chance they have to remove trade barriers and tame their future-killing socialistic tendencies, and they’re wasting it.
They’re just barely out of the downward spiral and chaos of the 80’s, they have much more to do: economy, security, social policy, free speech, the future of their populations….

By: Jonathan Edelstein

Jonathan Edelstein — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 22:53:08 +0000

I think that either there will be a core Europe/peripheral Europe sort of structure or a fuzzy-edged Europe that extends well beyond the continent. Right now, it looks like the second option is more likely to me.

I think there will be a combination of both - “core Europe” will expand beyond the continent but there will also be a division between core and periphery. Prodi’s Euro-Mediterranean Partnership goes a good way toward creating a core-periphery structure, with the core being the current EU members and the periphery being approximately equivalent to the classical Roman sphere. I believe there is a similar move to extend the periphery into Ukraine and the Caucasian states.

Whether peripheral countries will join the core depends upon both their own desires and those of the established EU members. Some countries, like Armenia and Turkey, have EU membership as an explicit goal; others would be satisfied (at least for now) with a lesser degree of integration. There might ultimately be several levels of associate membership with peripheral countries able to pick and choose the European institutions in which they will participate. Israel and Turkey (and to a lesser extent Morocco) are already part of many European institutions despite not having formal membership.

There also are, and will be, various degrees of integration among overseas territories. Netherlands Antilleans carry EU passports but have different tax laws; the British territories are legally distinct from the EU and the French DOMs/TOMs seem to be somewhere in between. New Caledonia is defined as an autonomous “overseas country” of France, for instance, but it has associate EU status and it is subject to the human rights jurisdiction of Strasbourg. It’s a wonderful mess.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 20:42:20 +0000

St. Helena is a Crown Colony, the same status as Gibraltar, so the answer is YES. What about Ascension Island, then - volcanic isle of spooks, rocks and RAF personnel? It’s technically a dependency of St Helena, go figure…

By: Young Fogey

Young Fogey — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 17:38:49 +0000

The DOMs, and Gibraltar, are part of the EU but not part of the customs area. The TOMs, on the other hand, are not part of the EU at all.

It always amuses me when people say Turkey can’t join the EU because 97% of it’s land area is in Asia - because on that logic French Guiana would get the boot tomorrow!

By: Scott Martens

Scott Martens — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 11:48:19 +0000

The DOM-TOMs are not part of the EU customs and taxation area. But that’s the point - the already isn’t quite so simple.

By: linca

linca — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 04:40:46 +0000

DOMs are parts of the republic of France, with the same laws, same treaty memberships, etc…, and are definitely part of the EU. TOMs, on the other hand are much more autonomous and may not be part of the EU.

By: David

David — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 04:33:44 +0000

The French DOM-TOM are also outside of the EU…

According to Wikipedia, the DOM are represented in the European Parliament, which suggests that they are in the EU.