ISABEL SOARES FILE
Treaty signature took place on June 12, 1985. Durão Barroso analyzes these four decades.
It was on the day June 12, 1985: Portugal signed the adhesion treaty to the European economic community (CEE). The then Prime Minister, Mário Soares, was in Jeronimos Monastery to formalize the entry of the country into the EEC.
It will be precisely the Jeronimos Monastery who welcomes today, Thursday, a ceremony evocative to the signature of the ECA adhesion treaty. It will have interventions from the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and the President of the European Council.
On this date, 40 years ago, Mário Soares signed the document that would realize the Portugal entry at EEC on January 1, 1986.
A few years after the blackhead revolution, this milestone represented the reinforcement of Portuguese democracy and the start of its modernization economic and social funded by community funds, with the new infrastructure and the free circulation to give a new breath to the country.
Although austerity between 2011 and 2014 caused tensions between Lisbon and Brussels, the Portuguese are one of the most European and those who trust the most in the European project, according to recent opinion studies.
During the ceremony, it will be signed Lisbon Declarationthat “reaffirms the European vocation of Portugal and the Portuguese contribution to the deepening of the Union,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.
The celebrations of Portugal’s adhesion extend until 2026-the effective entry took place on January 1, 1986-and intend to mark “40 years of success”, but also “launch the seeds of the future”, the celebration commissioner Carlos Coelho, formerly and current vice president of the PSD told Lusa.
Will intervene António Costa, president of the European Council, the President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Prime Minister Luís Montenegro; It is also planned a speech by the former president of the European Commission and former Portuguese Prime Minister, José Manuel Durão Barroso.
Durão Barroso It has already anticipated its analysis. Na, started by highlighting the “Modernization in all sectors of society” since the country entered the European community: “We stopped comparing ourselves with Africawhere we had the overseas provinces before April 25th. We were on our backs turned to Europe. We passed us naturally with the other European Union countries, countries that were much more advanced than us. ”
The other main positive points were: economic convergence and “very progress in the social area – and here is the big difference“He pointed out, emphasizing the data of social welfare, health. Today, Portugal is a” unrecognizable country, in a good way “.
António Costa described the signature of the Portuguese adhesion treaty and also from Spain as a “Decisive Step” For these countries: “Today I will be in Lisbon and Madrid to mark the 40th anniversary of the signing of the adhesion treaties of Portugal and Spain to the EEC. A decisive step for two young democracies and a milestone that reaffirmed European integration as a project of shared, prosperity and peace values,” wrote António Costa, in a social network publication.
The president of the European Parliament (PE), Roberta Metsola He says that today it is “impossible to imagine the European Union without Portugal.”
Ursula von der LeyenPresident of the European Commission, indicated “Portugal enriched the union with his unique soul, made of courage, longing and entrepreneurship. It reminds us that the most difficult seas are not feared: navigated”.
At the ceremony of the Jerónimos Monastery, an evocative video of the Signature of the Treaty will also be shown where Mário Soares and Ernani Lopes, Then Prime Minister and Finance Minister, respectively-both deceased.
In the signature of 40 years, also participated Rui mackete, then vice-prime minister, and Jaime Gama, as foreign minister.
That June 12, 1985, Mário Soares said: “This is a date of good augurium for the European future. A future we want solidarity and unity. … This is a factor of peace and stability in the troubled world of our day.”
