1986 enlargement of the European Communities
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 . 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. The accession talks were particularly prolonged by concerns over the Spanish fishing fleet, which was larger than the entire Community fleet put together, as well as severe governmental turbulence in Portugal, where several governments collapsed and one Prime Minister died in an aeroplane crash during the negotiations. Some scholars at the time predicted that increased competition from Europe would lead to economic problems for Spain and Portugal; however, in the years since, both countries' economies have benefited overall from the accession. The enlargement is also credited by some with helping to stabilise the fledgling democracies of both countries, as well as speeding up the decolonisation of the Portuguese Empire; whilst there is broadly consensus that membership played some role in these processes, there remains debate as to whether membership was the deciding factor in these changes, or whether it merely contributed. History Spain Relations under Franco Spain first applied for association with the European Economic Community (EEC), the general economic arm of the three European Communities, on 10 February 1962. The country was ineligible for full membership as a direct consequence of its dictatorship; whilst there was no specific provision in the treaty establishing the EEC requiring that Member States be democracies, the European Parliament made clear just months after the application that an undemocratic Spain would never have any relationship negotiated "closer than a commercial treaty", with further European integration in mind. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe passed a resolution by 70 votes to 31 in its 14th ordinary session in May 1962 calling for members of the EEC to "examine the possibility of some form of economic agreement between Spain and the Community, bearing in mind the constitutional changes that will be necessary before any form of political association can be contemplated". However, the application caused some controversy; a number of members of the European Parliament questioned whether the