The territory covering the western Mediterranean is an area of different dimensions. In the broadest sense, Arco Latino is defined as an area including provinces and second-level local administrations from four member states of the European Union: Spain, France, Italy and Portugal. It is a vast geographic area with more than 70 million inhabitants spread over a varying territory: coastal regions, islands and inland and border regions.

Arco Latino is an association of Spanish and Italian provinces and French departments in the western Mediterranean, spread on a Euro-territory in the South of Europe from the Algarve to Sicily.

Arco Latino, represented by the presidents of the member corporations, was founded in 1999 and officially constituted as an association in June 2002 in Montpellier.