page_title: 1986 enlargement of the European Communities
section_title: EC loans and application under democracy
hierarchical_section_title: 1986 enlargement of the European Communities / History / Portugal / EC loans and application under democracy
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Collectie / Archief&#160;: Fotocollectie Anefo Reportage / Serie&#160;: De Portugese premier Mário Soares bezoekt Nederland Beschrijving&#160;: Den Uyl (PvdA) en Soares (PS) schudden elkaar de hand; in het midden minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Max van der Stoel (PvdA) Datum&#160;: 9 maart 1977 Locatie&#160;: Den Haag, Zuid-Holland Trefwoorden&#160;: minister-presidenten, ministers, staatsbezoeken, vliegvelden Persoonsnaam&#160;: Soares, Mário, Stoel, Max van der, Uyl, Joop den Fotograaf&#160;: Fotograaf Onbekend / Anefo, [onbekend] Auteursrechthebbende&#160;: Nationaal Archief Materiaalsoort&#160;: Negatief (zwart/wit) Nummer archiefinventaris&#160;: bekijk toegang 2.24.01.05 Bestanddeelnummer&#160;: 929-0637
context_page_description: Spain and Portugal acceded to the European Communities, now the European Union, in 1986. This was the third enlargement of the Communities, following on from the 1973 and 1981 enlargements. Their accessions are considered to be a part of the broader Mediterranean enlargement of the European Union.
  Both countries had been under dictatorships until just over a decade prior to the accession, with Spain under the military dictatorship of Francisco Franco, and Portugal under the corporatist dictatorship of the Estado Novo. This had meant that, whilst both countries had previously had relationships with the Communities in some form or another, they were ineligible to become members. The mid-1970s brought the death of Franco in Spain, and the Carnation Revolution in Portugal, which rapidly pushed both countries towards democracy. Membership talks began with both countries a few years later.
  Spain and Portugal acceded to the Communities on 1 January 1986. The accession took place without any official ceremony other than the raising of the Spanish and Portuguese flags in Brussels, after a period of more than six years of negotiations between the Communities and the two countries.
context_section_description: 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 – a pre-Euro European system of monetary exchange without preference to a single currency – to Portugal, with the objective of "giving its fullest support to Portugal's efforts to strengthen democracy and promote social and economic progress". 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, equivalent to $277,000,000 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". These efforts bore their first fruits in September 1976, with the entrance of Portugal into the Council of Europe.
  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. Shortly afterwards, on 28 March, Portugal made their formal application to join the European Communities, with a series of three letters written by Soares to David Owen, the President of the council. The Portuguese government at the time claimed that the application was not "the decision of a government" but rather "the decision of a people".
  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. Although the opinion recommended that the Portuguese application be considered, it also highlighted significant dangers inherent to a Portuguese accession in the country's state at the time, noting that "profound social and economic reforms" would be required before admission could be successful.
caption: Soares (right) in the Netherlands on the 9th March 1977, just weeks before the Portuguese application
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