As of 2007 the European Union has 27 member states, most of which participate in all EU policy areas and programs or have signed up to do so. However EU law does not always apply evenly to all of the territory of all of the member states. Many member states have special territories which for either historical, geographical or political reasons have differing relationships with their national governments — and consequently also the European Union — than the rest of the member state's territory. Many of these special territories don't participate in all or any EU policy areas and programs. Some have no official relationship with the EU while others participate in EU programs in line with the provisions of European Union directives, regulations or protocols attached to the European Union treaties.

Outermost regions
Azores and Madeira are two groups of Portuguese islands in the Atlantic. While derogations from the application of EU law could apply, none do.

Azores and Madeira
The Canary Islands are a group of Spanish island in the Atlantic. They are outside the European Union Value Added Tax Area but otherwise EU law applies in its totality.

Canary Islands
French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion are French Overseas departments and under French law are, for the most part, treated as integral parts of the Republic. Each also forms a French Overseas region. The euro is legal tender and they are part of the European Union Customs Union Despite their official separation from Guadeloupe on 25 July 2007, Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin retain their status as OMR.

French overseas departments
The overseas countries and territories are twenty territories that have a special relationship with one of the member states of the EU: eleven with the United Kingdom, six with France, two with the Netherlands and one with Denmark. They were invited to form association agreements with the EU and may opt-in to EU provision's on Freedom of movement for workers (Article 186) and freedom of establishment (Article 183(5)). They are not subject to the EU's common external tariff (Article 184(1)) but may claim customs on goods imported from the EU on a non-discriminatory basis (Article 184(3) and (5)). They are not part of the EU, and EU law applies to them only in so far is necessary to implement the association agreements.

Overseas countries and territories
Twelve overseas territories of the United Kingdom, namely:
are counted as Overseas Countries and Territories under the Treaty of Rome, however Bermuda was excluded from the scheme on its own request.
All citizens of the British overseas territories - including those connected to Bermuda, but excluding those connected to Britain's sovereign bases in Cyprus - were granted full British citizenship by the British Overseas Territories Act 2002. Their are consequently the European Union citizens.
This is however rather moot in relation to the British Antarctic Territory and British Indian Ocean Territory, as neither of these has a permanent population. Britain's claim to the former is suspended due to the operation of the Antarctic Treaty System, while the native inhabitants of the latter were forcibly depopulated in the 1970s to make way for an American military base. The base, on the island of Diego Garcia which is leased to the United States, is the only inhabited part of the British Indian Ocean Territory and American, not British law applies.

Anguilla,
Bermuda,
British Antarctic Territory,
British Indian Ocean Territory,
British Virgin Islands,
Cayman Islands,
Falkland Islands,
Montserrat,
Pitcairn Islands,
Saint Helena,
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and
Turks and Caicos Islands British overseas territories
Mayotte, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna and French Southern and Antarctic Lands (which now includes the French Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean) are overseas collectivities (formerly referred to as overseas territories) of France, while New Caledonia is a sui generis collectivity.
Mayotte and of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon are both part of the Eurozone, while New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna, use the Franc Pacifique a currency which is tied to the Euro.
Natives of the collectivities are European citizens owing to their French citizenship and elections to the European Parliament are held in the collectivities, a point is has little impact on the French Southern and Antarctic Lands which is uninhabited other than for a few scientific bases and France's territorial claim to the southern half, the Antarctic Lands, is suspended due to the operation of the Antarctic Treaty System.

Greenland
Netherlands Antilles and Aruba are autonomous parts of the Netherlands. They are excluded from the operation of EU law by reason of a protocol attached to the Treaty of Rome, however they are counted as overseas territories. The inhabitants of the islands are EU Citizens owing to their Dutch nationality, but most of them were not, until recently, entitled to vote in European Parliamentary Elections. This has been recently ruled to be contrary to EU law by the Court of Justice as Dutch citizens residents outside the EU, other than those resident in either the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, were entitled to vote in the Dutch elections to the European Parliament.
The Netherlands Antilles are currently in a phase of reform: on December 15, 2008, the Netherlands Antilles will be dissolved and replaced by the two overseas autonomous countries of Curaçao and Sint Maarten on the one hand, and the three Dutch municipalities of Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius on the other hand. The latter three will have to apply most of Dutch law and could then opt to become an outmost region of the EU if they so wished.

Netherlands Antilles and Aruba
While the outmost regions and the overseas counties and territories fall to be considered with structured categories amongst which common mechanisms apply, this is not true of all the special territories. Some territories enjoy ad-hoc arrangements in their relationship with the EU. Some of these could be called protocol territories as their status is governed by protocols attached to their respective countries' accession treaties. The rest owe their states to European Union legislative provisions which exclude the territories from the application of the legislation concerned. many opt-out from either the Value Added Tax Area or the Customs Union or both.

Special cases
Åland, a group of Swedish-speaking Finnish islands off the Swedish coast, joined the EU along with Finland in 1995. The islands had a separate referendum on accession and like the Finnish mainland voted in favour.
While most EU law applies to Åland it is outside the VAT area

Åland Islands
The German enclave town of Büsingen am Hochrhein is in customs union with Switzerland.

Büsingen am Hochrhein
The Italian enclave village of Campione d'Italia is totally surrounded by Switzerland's Canton Ticino (Tessin) as well as Lake Lugano (Lake Ceresio) and is in the Province of Como, whilst Livigno a small and remote mountain resort town is in the Italian Province of Sondrio. Although part of the EU they are excluded from the Customs Union and VAT Area, with Livigno's tax status dating back to Napoleonic times.

Campione d'Italia and Livigno
Ceuta and Melilla are two Spanish enclaves on the Moroccan coast. They are excluded from the common agricultural and fisheries policies. They are also outside the Customs Union and VAT Area, however no customs are levied on goods exported from the Union into either Ceuta and Melilla, and certain goods originating in Ceuta and Melilla are exempt from customs charges.

Ceuta and Melilla
The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are British Crown dependencies. The former being just off the French coast and the latter being in the middle of the Irish Sea. The islands take part in the EU freedom of movement of goods but not people, services or capital. The Channel Islands are outside the VAT area, while the Isle of Man is inside it

The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man
Although the whole island became part of the European Union on 1 May 2004, EU law only applies to the southern part of the island, which is controlled by the government of the Republic of Cyprus. EU law is suspended in the northern third of the island, the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" (recognised only by Turkey). Turkish Cypriots living there are nonetheless European citizens and are entitled, at least in principle, to vote in elections to the European Parliament, however elections to that Parliament are not held in northern Cyprus.

Cyprus
The United Kingdom has two sovereign bases on Cyprus known as Akrotiri and Dhekelia. Unlike other British overseas territories, they are not listed as Overseas Countries and Territories under the Treaty of Rome and their inhabitants (who are entitled to British Overseas Territories Citizenship) have never been entitled to British citizenship.
Prior to Cypriot accession to the EU in 2004, EU law did not apply to the sovereign bases (Article 299(6)(b)). This position was changed by the Cypriot accession treaty and EU law, while still not applying in principle, applies to the extent necessary to implement a protocol attached to that treaty. and therefore European citizens.

United Kingdom sovereign bases
The Green Line is a United Nations buffer line between north and south Cyprus patrolled by UN troops. It is uninhabited, apart from the one mixed Greek and Turkish village, Pyla. While the Cyprus protocol Union divides the island into those areas controlled by the government of the Republic and those not. It is not clear whether the green line should be considered part of the former or the latter areas and consequently whether EU law applies to the green line and to Pyla.

The Green line
The Faroe Islands are not part of the EU and Danish nationals residing in the Faroe Islands are not to be considered as nationals of a member state within the meaning of the treaties or consequently citizens of the European Union. One of the curious upshots of which is if Faroe Islanders move to the Union (as opposed to just going there on holiday) they become EU citizens capable of exercising the right of freedom of movement as they would no longer be resident on the Faroe Islands.

Faroe Islands
Gibraltar, a British territory on the Iberian coast, is part of the EU, having joined the European Economic Community with the United Kingdom in 1973. Article 299(4) applies the treaty to "the European territories for whose external relations a Member State is responsible". In practice Gibraltar is the only territory covered by this clause. Notwithstanding its being part of the EU, Gibraltar is outside the Customs Union and VAT Area and is excluded from the Common Agricultural Policy.
Owing to a declaration lodged by the United Kingdom with the EEC in 1982 Gibraltarians were to be counted as British nationals for the purposes of Community law. This was notwithstanding that they were not, at the time, British citizens but were instead British Overseas Territories Citizens. As such Gibraltarians enjoyed European Union citizenship from its creation in the Maastricht Treaty. All Gibraltarians have since been granted full British Citizenship.
Despite their status as EU citizens resident in the EU, elections to the European Parliament were not held in Gibraltar until 2004. Its inclusion can be said, at least in part, to relate European Court of Human Rights' ruling in Matthews v. United Kingdom which deemed that Gibraltar's exclusion violated Article 3 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights. In the European Parliament election 2004 the territory was deemed to be part of the South West England constituency of the United Kingdom.

Gibraltar
Heligoland is an German island situated 70 km (44 miles) off he German north-western coast. It is part of the EU, but is excluded from the Customs Union and VAT Area.

Heligoland
Mount Athos, an autonomous monastic region of Greece, is outside the VAT area. Greece's EU accession treaty provides that Mount Athos maintains its centuries-old special legal status. For example, the entry of women to Mt. Athos is prohibited, in spite of EU laws on gender discrimination.

Mount Athos
Finland leases the Saimaa Canal and the island of Malyj Vysotskij from Russia. Russian law is in force, with a few exceptions concerning maritime rules and the employment of canal staff, which fall under Finnish jurisdiction. There are also special rules concerning vessels travelling to Finland via the canal. Russian visas are not required for just passing through the canal.

Saimaa Canal and Malyj Vysotskij Island
The French Overseas Collectivities of Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin and the overseas territory of Clipperton Island share the dubious distinction of being overseas possessions of a member state - France - that are not, either directly or indirectly, referred to the treaties. Consequently isn't clear whether the treaties apply to any of these places or the degree to which they apply.
Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin were broken away on 22 February 2007 from the French Overseas Department of Guadeloupe to be formed into two new collectivities. A French parliamentary report noted that they would have to change from being part of an outmost region to being overseas countries or territories,
On 21 February 2007, the administration of the Clipperton Island was transferred from the High Commissioner of the Republic in French Polynesia to the Minister of Overseas France. While it is not clear whether EU treaties apply there, this has few ramifications as it is entirely uninhabited.

Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin, and Clipperton Island

Kleinwalsertal

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