Conference debate today 40 years of Portugal’s “successful” accession to the EU

O40 years of the “European Portugal” are being discussed today at a conference in Lisbon organised by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, which should underline the success for the country and the European Union of the Portuguese accession to the Community bloc.

During the conference, with the participation of former Prime Minister and President of the European Commission José Manuel Durão Barroso and several former European Commissioners from Portugal, the results of an inquiry conducted by the Bertelsmann Foundation in eight Member States will be published, which shows that Portugal's accession to the European Union (EU) is considered one of the most successful enlargements in the history of the European project, both by national citizens and other countries.

According to the survey, carried out under the Eupinions project, a partnership of the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation with the Bertelsmann Foundation, and carried out in December 2025 with more than 17,000 citizens of a number of EU representative countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain), 70% of Europeans believe that Portugal's accession had a positive impact on the European bloc and 69% see the benefits of accession in their own country.

The joint accession of Portugal and Spain to the then European Economic Community (EEC) in 1986 is on the basis of the most successful enlargements in the history of the EU, placing itself in third place between the seven enlargement rounds since the founding of the European project, just behind the first enlargement, 1973 (Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom) and 1995 (Austria, Finland and Sweden).

Among the Portuguese respondents, the evaluation is even more favorable, with more than three quarters (76%) to consider membership positive, highlighting its effects on the consolidation of democracy and the development of the economy.

These data will feed the debates to take place today at the conference “40 years of European Portugal. What follows?”, which, according to the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, proposes to revisit the course of Portuguese participation in the EU, reflecting on the future of Europe and seeking to answer very specific questions such as “what went well, what could have been different, what Portugal needs to do to converge with the most developed Member States and how the EU should respond to the major challenges ahead”.

Curated by diplomat João Vale de Almeida, a former EU ambassador to the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Nations, the event, which takes place from 2:30 p.m. at the Technical Innovation Center in Lisbon, will be attended by Durão Barroso, the current Commissioner Maria Luís Albuquerque, and the former European Commissioners, Carlos Coins, António Vitorino and Elisa Ferreira.

The participants are also the former European Commissioner and President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskait.