Le Statut Communautaire de la Polynésie Française

Abstract

From the point of view of France, French Polynesia is an integral part of the French Republic but it does have a certain degree of political autonomy.  From the point of view of European Community law, French Polynesia has a special status under the Part 4 of the EC Treaty.  That Part confers on French Polynesia the benefit of a special relationship with the European Union.  In addition French law considers that those living overseas are all French citizens and therefore have under the EC Treaty the status of European citizen.  In this paper the author considers the nature of the association of the French territories to the European Union that is provided in the Treaty and notes that it is not radically different from that provided in the Cotonou Agreement.  Working from that point the article investigates whether the provisions of Part 4 alone apply to the overseas territories and seeks to identify the true range of the application of community law to the overseas territories.