Adesão à Europa e Política Europeia

The Negotiating Process, por João de Vallera

The present paper considers the balance on Portugal’s participation in the intricate network and play of forces in the negotiating processes within the European Union. To do that, it addresses briefly some issues regarding the way national positions are adopted in Lisbon and the organisation and defence of Portuguese interests in Brussels, as well as the necessary coordination between the front line and the rear guard, trying to draw some conclusions. It ponders the meaning of the vote withing the Council, with the practice of qualified majority voting now firmly established in the community order. Finally, it attempts to summarise and give some consistency to what might seem like a mixture of scattered measures, considering the driving forces which guided Portuguese action on the various levels of the different compositions of the Council.