The Overseas Countries and Territories are recognised by Article 198 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union which allows them to opt into EU provisions on the freedom of movement for workers and freedom of establishment, and invites them to join the Overseas Countries and Territories Association (OCTA) in order to improve cooperation with the European Union.

[4][d] Collectively, the special territories encompass a population of some 6.1 million people and a land area of about 2,733,792 square kilometres (1,055,500 sq mi).

The Outermost Regions (OMR) are territories forming part of a member state of the European Union but situated a significant distance from mainland Europe.

According to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, both primary and secondary European Union law applies automatically to these territories, with possible derogations to take account of their "structural social and economic situation (...) which is compounded by their remoteness, insularity, small size, difficult topography and climate, economic dependence on a few products, the permanence and combination of which severely restrain their development".

Azores and Madeira are integral parts of the Portuguese Republic, but both have the special status as Autonomous Regions, with a degree of self-governance.

The Canary Islands are a Spanish archipelago off the African coast which form one of the 17 autonomous communities of Spain–the country's principal first-level administrative division.

The obligations provided for in paragraph 1 of this Article shall not apply to treatment granted under measures providing for recognition of qualifications, licences or prudential measures in accordance with Article VII of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) or the GATS Annex on Financial Services.

[15] The legal status of the islands was clarified on the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty which listed them as outermost regions.

The change was made to facilitate trade with countries outside the EU, notably the United States,[32] and was made possible by a provision of the Lisbon Treaty which allows the European Council to change the EU status of a Danish, Dutch, or French territory on the initiative of the member state concerned.

The inhabitants of the islands are EU citizens owing to their Dutch citizenship, with the right to vote in elections to the European Parliament.

[34] Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten are classified as "countries" under Dutch law, and have considerable internal autonomy.

In June 2008, the Dutch government published a report on the projected effect on the islands were they to join the EU as outermost regions.

Their current OCT status, and the prospect of advancing their status to become part of the EU as new OMRs (outermost regions), was reviewed by the Dutch parliament in 2015,[39] as part of the planned review of the Dutch law (WOLBES and FINBES) concerning the quality of their recently implemented new public administration bodies.

[40] In October 2015, the review concluded the present legal structures for governance and integration with European Netherlands was not working well within the framework of WolBES, but no recommendations were made in regards of whether a switch from OCT to OMR status would help improve this situation.

The main reason for leaving is disagreements about the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and to regain control of Greenlandic fish resources to subsequently remain outside EU waters.

Åland is outside the VAT area[10] and is exempt from common rules in relation to turnover taxes, excise duties and indirect taxation.

[58] The status may be obtained by any Finnish citizen legally resident in Åland for 5 years who can demonstrate an adequate knowledge of the Swedish language.

[59] The German village of Büsingen am Hochrhein is an exclave entirely surrounded by Switzerland, and as such is, for practical purposes, in a customs union with the latter non-EU country.

[citation needed] The Italian exclave village of Campione d'Italia is enclaved by Switzerland's Ticino canton as well as Lake Lugano (or Ceresio), and is a comune in the Province of Como, whilst Livigno, a small and remote mountain resort town, is a comune in the Province of Sondrio.

When the Republic of Cyprus became part of the European Union on 1 May 2004, the northern third of the island was outside of the effective control of its government due to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, a United Nations buffer zone of varying width separated the two parts, and a further 3% of the island was taken up by UK sovereign bases (under British sovereignty since the Treaty of Establishment in 1960).

The base areas are already de facto members of the eurozone due to their previous use of the Cypriot pound and their adoption of the euro as legal tender from 2008.

Just under half of the population of the sovereign base areas are Cypriots, the rest are British military personnel, support staff and their dependants.

[77] In a declaration attached to the Treaty of Establishment of the Republic of Cyprus of 1960, the British government undertook not to allow new settlement of people in the sovereign base areas other than for temporary purposes.

[78] Under a protocol to the Brexit withdrawal agreement, certain provisions of EU law on agriculture, customs, indirect taxation, social security and border control continue to apply to the sovereign base areas.

[79] The United Nations buffer zone between north and south Cyprus ranges in width from a few metres in central Nicosia to several kilometres in the countryside.

[50] Article 2.1 of the Cyprus Protocol[68] allows the European Council to determine to what extent the provisions of EU law apply in the buffer zone.

Greece's EU accession treaty provides that Mount Athos maintains its centuries-old special legal status,[84] guaranteed by article 105 of the Greek Constitution.

[10] Notwithstanding that a special permit is required to enter the peninsula and that there is a prohibition on the admittance of women, it is part of the Schengen Area.

Finland leases the 19.6 kilometres (12.2 mi)-long Russian part of the Saimaa Canal from Russia and is granted extraterritoriality rights.

Additionally in Europe there were special territories in the past that had different status than their "mainland", because of various reasons, but now are part of a member state.