The objective of this chapter is to examine the principle of territorial exclusion from the EU as embodied inter alia in Protocol 3 appended to the 2003 Treaty of Accession concerning the UK Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus, through a comparative analysis of the nature of the derogation and of the main provisions of the applicable regime from a national, EU and/or international law perspective. This analysis placed in the context of the sui generis territories of the EU Member States presents a priori a double interest for legal scholarship. It outlines and enriches further the relationship between EU law and international law by looking at the expression of the principle of territorial exclusion in the EU and beyond, while at the same time it presents an arguably unique instance of differentiation in the EU legal order within the framework of 355 TFEU. There appear to be several kinds of sui generis territories which are excluded from the territorial and/or substantive scope of the EU. They are commonly referred to as special or ‘sui generis’ territories to the extent that they do not fit within the usual pattern of the associated and independent territories as set out in Articles 349 and 355 TFEU. Beyond this common feature, they are however difficult to classify in a systematic manner as their characteristics may very much differ for each territory. Notwithstanding the above, this paper will attempt to address the principle of territorial inclusion/exclusion in the EU. In a nutshell, one can identify several broad categories of territories falling prima facie under the scope of the principle of territorial exclusion from the EU. Of prime relevance to this paper are all the special territories located not so far away, but rather at the periphery – or even within – the EU territory (to which they may not belong), enjoying a special link with one or more Member States (territory of a Member State next to or within another Member State) and being addressed either directly or indirectly in the remaining of Article 355 TFEU (paragraph (2) sub-paragraph 2; paragraphs (3) to (5)) and/or in Protocols. Their status is dynamic and may evolve with time, which raises the issue of the legal framework applicable to each case at the supranational level.
