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Talk:Algeria–European Union relations

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Algeria a member of EEC after 1962?

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User:Thenightaway just reverted my edit, claiming that the statement that Algeria was a member of EEC after 1962 is supported by a peer-reviewed Harvard University Press book, "The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community". However, I haven't been able to find any explicit support for the claim that Algeria actually was a seventh member state in the book (except for the quite confusing title). @Thenightaway: Please provide me with an exact page number where your claim is supported.

By contrast, there are plenty of academic, official, legal, and newspaper sources that claim the opposite, just to give a few examples:

  • The official website of the European Commission says nothing about Algeria having been a member state of the EEC. According to the website, the first enlargement of EEC took place on 1 January 1973 with Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom joining EEC, bringing the total number of member states to nine (i.e., Algeria was clearly not a member state at that time).
  • There are several academic sources confirming that Algeria indeed left EEC in 1962, see e.g. [1] [2] [3]
  • There are legal acts from the 1960s where Algeria is indeed listed as a third country and not a member state of EEC, see e.g. [4]
  • There are numerous of other newspaper-style sources clearly stating that Algeria left in 1962, see e.g. [5] [6]

Nablicus (talk) 18:05, 7 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

From the book description[7]: "Even after independence in 1962, Algeria remained part of the community, although its ongoing inclusion was a matter of debate. Still, Algeria’s membership continued until 1976, when a formal treaty removed it from the European community." As for the other sources you mentioned, they all precede this work by a historian specializing on the subject and publishing on it a top-tier press. The other sources don't seem to specialize on this topic or are not top-tier academic publications. The Brexit book goes over the topic very superficially. The NPR source cites "nationalia.info" for Algeria leaving in 1962. That said, I have no idea what is right on this. All I'm saying is that there's a very strong source that appears to be saying Algeria was a formal member until 1976 in a somewhat disputed fashion. I hope that we can figure out the right solution given the conflict between sources. thena (talk) 18:39, 7 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I would like to see evidence that the book is peer-reviewed and also if the peer-review guarantees the factual correctness of the claim made in this article. I used the link here and read the parts of the book that was available without buying it and did not find such evidence.--BIL (talk) 19:04, 7 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
That excerpt from the book is really not sufficient to support such an WP:EXCEPTIONAL claim that contradicts many other sources. In fact it doesn't even definitively claim that it remained a member, as it admits that this position is a matter of debate.
The 1976 treaty referenced appears to be this, which makes no mention of Algeria ceasing membership of the EEC as far as I can see. So while it informally marked a new phase of relations post-independence, I don't see how this could legally enact Algeria's exit from the EEC.
It think it's fair to say that there was some ongoing uncertainty on their status post 1960, as they remained explicitly referenced in TEEC 227 until the Maastricht Treaty as far as I can tell, but I don't think we can say definitely that they were a member until 1976. TDL (talk) 23:03, 7 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]