Article 238 EEC-Treaty lays down the external communal competence to conclude association agreements with a third state, a union of states or an international organisation. Before the proclamation ofthe ‘Global Mediterranean Policy’ in 1972, the Community entered in a variety of associations and trade agreements with most states bordering the Mediterranean.The agreements concluded after 1972 with the Maghreb, the Mashrak, Israel and Yugoslavia and supplemented with Turkey, Malta and Cyprus contain corresponding provisions regarding the objectives of the agreement, trade cooperation, economical, technical and financial cooperation and -if necessary- cooperation in the field of labour. They also lay down the competentions of the institutions called into existence by the agreements. From the negotiation to the implementation of the agreements, protocols and decisions, many formal and material juridical questions can be raised.