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38.More information
While both the ECSC and EAEC Treaties used geographic criteria to exclude or include certain territories of States from their scope of application, the EEC Treaty of Rome is not based on this geographic criterion, and contains special, relatively original provisions concerning its application to certain Overseas Territories of the Member States. This initial inclusion of overseas territories in the EEC Treaty resulted in a differentiated application of the Treaty to the French overseas departments (FODs) and Algeria, as well as in a special Association regime granted to other Belgian, French, Italian and Dutch overseas territories, qualified as Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs). Following the independence of some of these OCTs, the EEC developed a new form of Association, which is now negotiated and no longer granted, with the newly independent states. These states currently belong to the ACP Group of States (Africa-Caribbean-Pacific), with which the Union has established treaty relations. The initial provisions of the EEC Treaty of Rome relating to overseas territories have also gradually evolved through successive revisions of the Treaty. In this respect, while the status of the OCTs has undergone some changes, that of the overseas departments, which has been radically transformed, has led to the recognition of the status of Outermost Region (OR), a specific differentiated integration status enshrined in primary law. These statutory changes reflect a renewed consideration of the overseas territories within the Union, also perceptible through the introduction into primary law of a specific and simplified procedure for revising the Treaties in order to facilitate the change of status of certain overseas territories. These provisions give rise to reflection considering the definition of tailor-made statutes for certain overseas territories, such as Saint Martin. These prospects for statutory developments would lead to a move beyond the current statutory categories of overseas territories within the EU.
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