Adesão à Europa e Política Europeia

Lessons from Portugal’s Long Transition to Economic and Monetary Union, por Francisco Torres

After providing a brief overview to Portugal’s transition to European and Monetary Union (EMU), this paper presents what the author considers to be the benchmark argument for Portugal to join a monetary union and discusses how it was perceived by policy makers and the public. In the third section, it focuses on the politics of macroeconomic stabilisation. In the fourth, it looks at the change of regime and political consensus building. The fifth section considers the evolution of political and policy misgivings on EMU. The sixth section analyses trade integration and the similarity of economic structures between Portugal and Euroland. In the seventh section it considers different institutional features of the Portuguese economy, especially the flexibility of the Portuguese labour market and the unemployment problem comparatively. The eighth section gives an overview of other developments of the Portuguese economy.