New data on the East Mediterranean domain allow to assign this oceanic basin to the larger Neotethyan oceanic system opening in Permian times. A Greater Apulia plate existed in Mesozoic times, including the autochthonous of Greece and SW Turkey. This plate also comprised a united Adria and Apulia microplate since Early Jurassic times. These key information imply to create a new post Variscan continental fit for the western Tethyan area, where the relationships between the Adrian, Apulian and Iberic plates can be defined with greater confidence. To create a reliable palinspastic model of the Alpine realm, plate tectonics constraints must be taken into consideration in order to assess the magnitude of lateral displacements. For most of the plates and their different terranes, thousand km scale differential transport can be demonstrated. This plate tectonics framework allows to proposed a better constrained geodynamic scenario for the formation of the Alpine chain, where the western and eastern transects have experienced quite contrasting geological evolution. The eastern Alps-Carpathians domain evolved from the north directed roll-back of the Maliac-Meliata slab and translation of the Meliata suture and Austroalpine domain into the Alpine domain. In the western Alps, the changing African plate boundary in space and time, defined the interaction between the Iberic-Briançonnais plate and the Austroalpine subduction wedge.