Two parts of the treaty of the European Community deal with special relationships: Article 299 which sets out the territories to which the treaty applies, supplemented by the accession treaties; and Articles 182-188 and Annex II on association with the non-European countries and territories which have special relations with the member states.
The outermost regions are 9 regions (6 in France, 2 in Portugal, 1 in Spain) where EC law applies, but where it is possible to derogate to common EC legislation to take account of their remoteness.
The overseas countries and territories (OCTs) are 21 self governing territories that are dependencies of one of the member states of the European Union: twelve are British dependencies, six French, two Dutch, and one Danish.