Adesão à Europa e Política Europeia

Portugal: The European Way, por Álvaro de Vasconcelos

The present paper reflects on the Portuguese experience and evolution within the EU. Two moments are pointed as crucial for a shift in its attitude toward: the presidencies of 1992 and of 2000. During the first one the Portuguese discovered the political Europe; during the second, the Union discovered Portugal. During these years Portuguese vision of Europe has evolved has one of a socially cohesive Europe open to the outside world, namely Africa and Latin America, and allied with the USA, security wise. The Portuguese have gradually come to understand that they cannot remain indifferent to the problems of Central and Eastern Europe – Portugal’s military participation in IFOR and SFOR in Bosnia was the definitive point of rupture. The Portuguese experience leaves one with the conviction that inclusion is the essential means for the EU to contribute to democracy and peace, attitude that should remain present during the Union’s widening.