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After WWII, when the governments of several European states attempted to form supranational groupings, colonial obligations posed problems that persist to this day. The article traces immediate postwar history, outlining the present relationship between the EC institutions & what remain of member-state empires, before proceeding to two case studies. The first concerns the ramifications of "Euroland" in present or past dependencies after European Monetary Union. The second considers the role of European dependencies in military alliances & analyzes how one of the founding treaties was used in the mid-1990s after the discovery that it applied extraterritorially. The conclusion is that the external border of multispeed Europe is even more variable than it might otherwise be because of the attachments some member states retain to colonial remnants. Adapted from the source document.

European Union member states have different nationality laws. Those with overseas dependencies control access there to European Parliament (EU) voting rights. Gibraltar and French Polynesia are two dependencies in which the existing situation is contested. Gibraltar's British citizens live on EU territory and therefore resent their exclusion from European elections. French Polynesia on the other hand is outside the European Union. Its citizens regard voting for the EP as at best irrelevant; its leaders wish to create a category of French overseas citizenship exclusive of European voting rights. This article compares the two situations and suggests some possible solutions.