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EU’s support truly depended on the developments of the
Portuguese political state of affairs and its commitment towards
democracy, which leads us to the relationship between democracy and
financial aid

If “Portugal does not pursue that goal or it becomes out of reach,
all the arguments in favour of that help will lose their legitimacy” (COM
(75) 287 Final)

MEMBERSHIP AS A REWARD FOR DEMOCRATIZATION

First Constitutional Government, Mário Soares, 1976, the history of
the relationship between Portugal and the EU was about to change

Accession to the EU became a priority

Among the reasons given in support of the Portuguese application,
the most cited are precisely democratic consolidation and economic
development

The democratic tradition was not present at the time of the
creation of the EU, but it developed during the next half century,
mostly in response to external stimuli

None of the founding treaties establishes democracy as an
objective of European integration, but from the 1960’s democracy
began to appear in the EU’s discourse, until it had an explicit reference
in the Single European Act (1986)

But already from the first enlargement round (1973) that “the
international support for democracy became a publicly proclaimed goal
of the Community”

The Portuguese negotiating strength was sustained by both its
economic weakness and the threat of a radical reorientation of its
foreign policy

การอภิปรายรวมระหวางผูแทนจากตางประเทศ