In light of the topicality of the credit crunch, we should be afforded an official assessment. It is in the most remote areas that the first reproofs manifest themselves and it is here that we observe the first occurrences of social mobilisation as a direct result of the economic crisis on a micro level. It is in the French special member states ('régions ultrapériphériques', RUP), where, due to their relatively weak autonomous status, the strains of this spreading mobilisation are first felt. All this leads to a certain number of questions. Questions pertaining to the efficiency and implementation of the autonomy of the special member states. The special member states have institutional and statutory particularities which demonstrate their spatial, geographical and historical disparity, as well as their insularity and remoteness from institutions. It is the EU that is the instigator of the principle of subsidiarity (whereby the decision making is delegated as much as possible to the inferior echelons within a hierarchical structure) which requires abilities relative to the social. The implementation of these public policies demand proximity, whether at a national or local level.