EU Members

Exit

Maybe not really a politics kind of thread, but I couldn't think of anywhere else to put it.

I was just browsing Wikipedia, when I came across this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_member_state_territories_and_their_relations_with_the_EU

It's pretty cool and has a lot of stuff I didn't know. The weirdest one is that French Guiana is an EU member and the euro is the legal currency there.

Anyway, some might find it interesting, some might not.

sceptre

French Guiana isn't an actual member, it's an overseas département of France. Hence it's legally part of France and therefore part of the EU. The French have always had a different relationship with their territories compared with the British, Dutch and Belgians (who in any case don't own anything outside of Belgium any more). You must have noticed the tiny piccie of French Guiana on the notes we're all using when we're lucky enough to have them?

edit: Just read the wikipedia entry and it's pretty interesting. Mount Athos was news to me. As was Gibraltar being included as part of SW England in the forcoming EU parliament elections

Exit

Sorry, yeah I didn't mean to say that they were an actual member with votes and everything else that goes with it, but that they are a part of the EU.
I actually never noticed it tucked away at the bottom of the notes at all before.

sceptre

Originally posted by Exit
I actually never noticed it tucked away at the bottom of the notes at all before.

Easy to miss I suppose. I've no idea which of the three islands to the right of it on the notes is which.

article6

Interesting article, although I'd already known that we now border both Brazil and Russia. The part about Gibraltar voting in South West England was interesting.