1986 enlargement of the European Communities

Spain first applied for association with the European Economic Community on 10 February 1962[4]; it would not have been able to apply for full membership as a consequence of being under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe passed a resolution by 70 votes to 31 in its 14th ordinary session in May 1962 calling for members of the EEC to "examine the possibility of some form of economic agreement between Spain and the Community, bearing in mind the constitutional changes that will be necessary before any form of political association can be contemplated".[5] However, the application was of some controversy; members of the European Parliament questioned whether the application was acceptable, given the dictatorship Spain was under.[6][7]

With the question of association still unresolved by 1964, the head of the Spanish mission to the EEC sent another letter on 14 February renewing the request for association status.[8] Talks were subsequently scheduled to begin in the autumn of that year.[9] Eventually, in 1967, the Council of the EEC approved a mandate for the Commission to negotiate with Spain, and a trade agreement was signed in June 1970.[10] However, this was a trade preference agreement, as opposed to an association agreement; this meant only reciprocity in trade concessions, as opposed to the economic development assistance and the possibility of eventual full membership that was granted through association status to, for instance, Greece and Turkey.[11] Discussions remained in the 1970s about what the future relationship between the EEC and Spain might look like, after the formation of a EEC-Spain joint committee.[12]

Oreja and Suárez with Joop den Uyl, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, in August 1977, following Spain's application

Following the death of Francisco Franco and the beginnings of the Spanish transition to democracy, rumours had been circulating for some time in 1977 about the possibility of a Spanish request for membership of the EEC.[13] On 26 July, the new democratic government of Spain led by Adolfo Suárez wrote three letters to the President of the Council of Ministers of the European Communities, Henri Simonet, each requesting the admission of Spain to each different European Community.[14] These letters were hand-delivered by the Foreign Minister of Spain, Marcelino Oreja, to the President of the European Commission, Roy Jenkins, in Brussels on 28 July 1977.[15][16]

At the time, significant concerns were raised with regards to whether or not Spain would be accepted into the EEC, with Spanish press talking of a "green veto" being used by France and Italy against its accession.[17][18][10]

More than a year after the application was made, after extensive consultation and negotiation with existing Member States, the European Commission published in November 1978 an official opinion on Spain's application for membership, recommending that the membership negotiations began.[19]

On 5 February 1979, negotiations were opened between the European Council and Spain, with a speech made by Roy Jenkins in which he declared that "Spain is a part of Europe, and Europe is incomplete without Spain".[20][21][22]

The February 1981 Spanish coup d'état attempt represented a significant point of international attention during the membership negotiations, with the EEC being no exception, "reacting with concern" to the attempt by the Spanish Civil Guard to remove the democratically-elected government from office.[23] Following the failure of the coup attempt, the European Council met on 23-24 March 1981, and released a statement expressing its "great satisfaction at the reaction of the King, the government, and the Spanish people, faced by recent attacks against the democratic system of their country".[24] Felipe González, the leader of the opposition Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, went on a tour of Western Europe in March of the same year to "urge" nations to admit Spain to the EEC "as quickly as possible";[25] the EEC was, according to a Spanish diplomat speaking in 1982, seen as "a synonym for democracy" among the population.[26] However, an urgent acceleration of the negotiations did not immediately come to pass.[27]

A year later, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party were elected into government following the 1982 Spanish general election, making González the Prime Minister. Prior to the election, Spanish negotiations with the Communities had reportedly stalled; this was not only due to the coup attempt, but also thanks to opposition from the French government over concerns related to the Common Agricultural Policy leading to greater competition from Spain.[28] González once again put emphasis on the EEC during his election campaign, and at the same time downplayed the issue of Spanish membership of NATO, which had been a controversial issue within the debate about opening Spain up to the world for a number of years.[29]

Concerns were also raised over the potential impact of Spain's accession in particular on the operation of the Common Fisheries Policy. The Spanish fishing fleet was larger than the entire fleet of the existing Community members put together,[30] which had presented an issue in a similar manner during the negotiation of an interim agreement on fishing between Spain and the Community.[31] It was evident during the Spanish negotiations for admission that Spain had become more responsive to the fishing sector, as a consequence of the high propensity of illegal fishing leading to fishermen "mobilising as a socio-occupational group".[32] The Spanish Act of Accession eventually devoted fifty of its pages to fisheries-related matters.[33]

By the end of 1983, the French government was pressing for the closure of the negotiations, proposing a deadline of 30 September 1984.[34] The French government continued pressing for this deadline into 1984,[35] and it was agreed to by the Member States at the March 1984 Brussels Summit of the European Council.[36][37] However, this deadline was not met, with questions over fishing, agriculture and steel still remaining by the end of September, and more negotiations scheduled beyond the deadline.[38] At the end of October 1984, a commitment was made that Spain and Portugal would join the Communities on 1 January 1986, although there remained "difficulties" still in a number of areas of the negotiations.[39] This commitment was confirmed by a vote at the European Council summit on 3 December 1984, so long as "final negotiations [were] successful".[40]

Portugal was a founding member of the European Free Trade Association, which was initially aimed to compete with the EEC as a European common economic zone.[41] At the foundation of EFTA in 1960, Portugal was still under the Estado Novo corporatist dictatorship; a year later, the government of Portugal published a report decrying the decision taken by members of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation to establish the EEC "without consulting their partners in the Organisation", and saying that "The Portuguese Government is once again convinced that the spirit of understanding and solidarity that underpinned the establishment and operation of the European Free Trade Association will prevail".[42] In July of the year before EFTA was founded, however, the government of Portugal began the process of establishing a diplomatic mission to the EEC[43], and to Euratom[44] the same month.

A Portuguese government report completed at the start of 1962 acknowledged that seeking entry as a member of the EEC would have been unlikely to end in success, and suggested that an application for associate status might have been a better option.[45] A few months later, in April 1962, the Portuguese Ambassador to Brussels was instructed to open negotiations with the EEC to move towards this goal, in spite of potential hostilities due to "disapproval of the basic principles" of contemporary Portuguese government policy.[46] However, there was no clarity established by the Portuguese government as to what sort of negotiations were being asked for.[47] There was also significant opposition to any meaningful agreement being made, as a consequence of the Portuguese authoritarian regime, with the General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions intervening in June saying "We remain convinced that the Members of the Council of Ministers will not permit countries subjected to a regime like the Portuguese government of today to enter a community whose primary reason to exist is to strengthen the free world".[48]

Portugal once again looked to open negotiations with the EEC in 1969, having had the prior negotiations in 1962 postponed indefinitely.[49] These negotiations were more fruitful, and eventually culminated in a trade agreement between the EEC and Portugal,[50][51] albeit one that came at the same time as the EEC were negotiating free trade agreements with all Member States of EFTA.[52][41]

Diplomatic efforts towards Portuguese membership of the EEC were restarted in the early 1970s, still during the time of the Estado Novo dictatorship, but now under Marcelo Caetano.[53] Exploratory talks began in confidence on 7 January 1971,[54] with Caetano's attitude to Portuguese-EEC relations being described as "pragmatic", seeing that Europe would continue to be incredibly important for the country as their main trading partner.[47]

On 19 December 1972, the EEC and the Portuguese government concluded an agreement significantly reducing tariffs on imports in trade between the two.[55] This was the last move towards Europe on the part of Portugal before the fall of the Estado Novo regime.[47]

Soares (right) in the Netherlands on the 9th March 1977, just weeks before the Portuguese application

Following the Carnation Revolution of 1974 and the first democratic elections in 1975, the new Portuguese government started to take greater steps towards European integration. Over the course of the early 1970s, the European Investment Bank loaned millions of units of account to Portugal with the objective of "giving its fullest support to Portugal's efforts to strengthen democracy and promote social and economic progress".[56] In June 1976, the exchange rate for units of account to US dollars meant the amount loaned at the time, UA 70 million, was worth $79.1 million,[57] equivalent to $277,289,584 in 2018.

The first democratically-elected government of Portugal spoke of its programme as one that "intends that Portugal be present in the common effort of democratic European countries in the political, economic, social and cultural transformation of the old continent".[58] These efforts bore their first fruits in September 1976, with the entrance of Portugal into the Council of Europe.[59][60]

In 1977, just before Portugal made its formal application to join the Communities, Mário Soares, the Prime Minister of Portugal, and his Foreign Minister both went on a tour of European capitals, attempting to gather preliminary support for his country's accession.[61][62] Shortly afterwards, on 28 March, Portugal made their formal application to join the European Communities,[63] with a series of three letters written by Soares to David Owen, the President of the Council.[64] The Portuguese government at the time claimed that the application was not "the decision of a government" but rather "the decision of a people".[61]

Just over a year after the application was made, on 19 May 1978, the Commission issued a positive opinion on the Portuguese application for membership, following which membership negotiations were opened.[65]

In the immediate months following the opening of negotiations, there was some concern expressed over the level of support within the Portuguese populace for membership of the Communities, with the French newspaper Le Monde reporting that half of the population of Lisbon were unaware of what the Common Market was, rising to 72% in Porto.[66] Furthermore, at the end of 1979, after the government collapsed several times, Parliament was dissolved and fresh elections were called, leading to the election of a new Prime Minister, Francisco de Sá Carneiro.[67] However, after having been in office for only a year, Carneiro died in the 1980 Camarate air crash.[68][69] He was replaced as Prime Minister by Francisco Pinto Balsemão, whose government highlighted in their program concerns over "negative economic and social consequences" resulting from Community regulations that "suppose a different stage of structural evolution" in a Member State.[70] During Balsemão's government, a new Transitional Protocol was agreed between the EEC and Portugal, adjusting some of the tariffs applicable to trade between the two, with "a view to the accession of the Portuguese Republic to the Communities".[71]

In 1983, amid a storm of resignations, Balsemão's government too collapsed, and the 1983 Portuguese legislative election was called.[72][69] The elections led to the return of the Socialist Party, and consequently the return of Mário Soares as Prime Minister. However, with insufficient support in the Portuguese Assembly, Soares was forced to form a coalition with Carneiro's party, the Social Democratic Party.[73] The new coalition's program stated that "accession to the EEC in good time and under the right conditions [...] is the top priority of Portuguese economic and foreign policy".[74]

After 23 meetings of negotiations between ministers in Portugal and the Communities, on 24 October 1984, a joint statement was signed in Dublin between Soares, Garret FitzGerald, the president of the European Council, and Lorenzo Natali, the Vice-President of the Commission, "reaffirming the objective" of Portugal joining the Community on 1 January 1986.[75][76] In debates in the Portuguese Assembly, the Socialist Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Independent Social Democratic Association all expressed their agreement with the accession arrangements.[77] However, the planned entrance was not without opposition; members of the Portuguese Democratic Movement claimed the accession was a "myth" that "served as an alibi" for the Portuguese government to "avoid being confronted with the disastrous economic and social consequences of its policy",[78] whilst the Portuguese Communist Party member, Carlos Carvalhas, claimed the EEC were "ready to sacrifice [...] the interests of other countries".[79]

Greece threatened to veto the enlargement on the basis that its economy would not be able to cope without receiving the unapproved agricultural subsidies for its poorest regions.[80][81] On 29 May 1985, the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Giulio Andreotti, in negotiations with its Spanish counterpart, Fernando Morán López, and the Portuguese Finance Minister, Ernâni Lopes, announced that an agreement had been reached to keep to the original timeline; consequentially, Portugal and Spain would enter the "Europe of Twelve" on 1 January 1986.[82] Greece dropped its opposition to the enlargement when the EEC promised an increase of funds for the Mediterranean Integration Programs (IPM).[81][83]

The government of the United Kingdom at the time was in favour of Portugal and Spain joining the Communities,[84] with the Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office saying that the country had been a "staunch supporter of the accession".[85] However, Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister, stated in 1983 that Spain could not accede to the Communities "until the restrictions on the border between Spain and Gibraltar are lifted".[86] The border was fully reopened on 5 February 1985.[87]

Membership of the Communities is widely seen as having assisted the transitions to democracy of Spain and Portugal; however, there is some debate as to what extent Community membership is responsible for this.[95] The prerequisite that a state should be a democracy before joining the Communities has been described as a motivating factor for democratisation, and such a requirement has been suggested for agreements such as NAFTA as a result.[96] Eurobarometer surveys between 1985 and 1997 found a significant majority of Portuguese citizens felt that EU membership had benefited their country; this peaked at 82% of the population in 1991, before falling to a low of 67% in 1997.[97]

Special arrangements agreed for Spain and Portugal as new EEC members meant that, whilst in principle they were subject to the acquis communautaire of the Common Fisheries Policy, they were not fully integrated into it for many years.[33] It has also been argued that the acquis on environmental policy "imposed significant costs" on accession countries; compliance pressure and capacity building assistance from the Communities, later the EU, has been described as "necessary but not sufficient" alone to foster successful environmental governance in the accession countries.[98] However, other scholars have argued that the eventual benefit from the acquis has outweighed this, and pointed out that Spain has come to ardently insist on new EU members taking up the entire acquis.[99]

Shortly after formally joining in 1986, both Spain and Portugal agreed to proposed changes to the Treaty of Rome which limited individual countries' abilities to veto proposed legislation affecting tariffs and trade, and committed to a common foreign policy for Community Member States.[100] They also expressed themselves to be in favour of a doubling of the research budget of the EEC over a period of 5 years.[101]

The accession of Portugal to the European Communities also had an impact on the decolonisation of Portuguese colonies in Africa and on Europe-Africa relations consequently. Whilst the acquis communautaire itself had been weak, dominated only by the European Political Cooperation, the acquis politique was very much in favour of decolonisation,[102] a process which Portugal was pushed to adopt in order to join the Communities - although there is debate as to whether the planned accession was the primary cause.[103][104]

The accession led to significant benefits for both in terms of economic stability and strength,[105] and the average per-capita income of Portuguese and Spanish citizens grew significantly, reaching 74% and 83% respectively of the EU average by 2003.[96] Structural funds offered by European Community membership were of particular importance in easing pressure on the countries' economies, especially following the Single European Act reforms that doubled the amount of structural funds available between 1988 and 1993.[106] In Portugal, these funds were invested primarily in road infrastructure, public buildings and urban renewal, indirectly creating many new jobs in the construction industry, which led to a significant (if small in absolute terms) increase in "unskilled or low-skilled" migration to the country.[107]

The dismantling of tariff barriers subsequent to both countries' accessions led some scholars to predict the collapse of industry in the two countries; a columnist of the Harvard International Review, Anne Robinson, predicted "both Spain's and Portugal's generally under-productive and inefficient industries will collapse, creating profitable new markets for exporters in Europe's modernised north".[108] "Restrictive administrative practices" in Spain, however, are noted as having "penalised" products from abroad, placing a preference on locally-produced ones.[109] Concerns were also expressed over potential impacts of the Common Agricultural Policy on the Portuguese farming industry, especially with regard to pushes for afforestation and extensification - although these were additionally noted to have benefits for some industries, including in logging and paper production.[110]