Portugal's Application to the EEC: Intertwine with the Democratization and Decolonization Processes

Abstract

The aim of this article is to clarify the process and factor of Portugal's application to the EEC in 1977. In the existing studies, one emphasizes a relevancy with the democratization process which occurred in the 1970s. Others give importance to the decolonization process which also evolved in the 1970s. Checked against the historical fact, however, these studies are not valid as independent explication. In fact, intertwine between democratization and decolonization in various phases led to the application. The present article verifies this point, principally based on records of historical archives in Portugal.
In the 1950s, when the European integration, namely the ECSC, the EURATOM and the EEC launched among the West European countries, the Portuguese government under Salazar and Caetano's authoritarian regime did not seek to join these projects because of the incompatibility with the colonial empire. Since the 1970s, however, on account of a deadlock of the colonial war in Africa and the evolution of economic relations with the EEC countries, the oppositions such as the Socialist Party criticized the government's position, insisting on abandoning the African colonies and simultaneously accessing the EEC through democratization of the regime. These oppositions cooperated with the armed forces that also had a discontent against the colonial war. Hence the authoritarian regime collapsed with a military coup in April 1974.
At that point, however, what was held in common among pricipal actors was only about the colonial matter and not about the European matter. Under the provisional regime, the reformist fraction of the armed forces, which had intention to introduce a “revolutionary” regime and were not favorable for the participation in the EEC, seized power in the government with a support of the Portuguese Communist Party. But centrist parties such as the Socialist Party denounced such reformist's stance. Political organizations in the EEC contries also applied democratic pressures on the armed forces. The governments of the EEC member states expressed that they could cooperate with only democratic countries as a new member.
In the face of such pressures, the moderator fraction of the Portuguese army, which had kept silent, went into action. They recognized that the relations with the EEC would be indispensable for Portugal, given the independence of the African ex-colonies which started in September 1974. They shut the reformists out from the government. As a result of a “coalition” between dominant forces of the armed forces and political parties in terms of external (European integration) and internal (political regime) policies, the democratization process was set out, and in March 1977, one year after the transition to a democratic state, the Portuguese government applied the accession to the EEC (as well as the ECSC and the EURATOM).