European Ultraperiphery at the 1988 Conference of Madeira: The Start of Something “New?”

Abstract

The accession of Spain and Portugal to the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1986 brought their overseas regions into the Community’s framework, prompting renewed discussions about the European status of these territories. While the 1988 Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions (CPMR) in Madeira is remembered as a turning point by regional leaders, this article critically examines its actual role in shaping the “outermost regions” status, which was formally recognized in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty. Existing scholarship, primarily from legal and institutional perspectives, tends to overlook the socio-historical processes underlying the construction of this status. This study adopts a constructivist approach, analyzing archival records from relevant decision-making institutions, contemporary media, and memoirs to address this research gap. It argues that while the Madeira Conference played an important role as a bottom-up lobbying effort to advocate for a Community-based status, the narrative of its centrality often overlooks key factors. These include the broader context of European institutions’ pre-existing initiatives addressing overseas regions through national frameworks and the internal opposition within these regions to European integration. The article contends that the conference's most enduring legacy certainly lies in fostering a transnational network of regional leaders, which ultimately succeeded in institutionalizing the status of outermost regions in the Maastricht Treaty. By broadening the spatial and temporal scope of analysis, this study contributes to the historiography of the intersections between European integration and postcolonialism, extending its implications into contemporary contexts.