The Accession Treaty of Spain to the European Communities is a treaty for the accession of Spain to the European Economic Community —now the European Union— and was signed on June 12, 1985, in the Hall of Columns of the Royal Palace of Madrid to enter into effect on January 1, 1986. This incorporation was carried out at the same time as that of Portugal. Following this accession, Spain experienced a period of economic prosperity; during five consecutive years, it achieved the highest growth rate of the entire Community. This constituted the completion of liberalization in Spain, opening and rationalization of the Spanish economy after the National Economic Stabilization Plan in 1959.Juan Badosa Pagés (in Spanish) In addition to economic progress, this accession meant the end of the international isolation experienced since the Potsdam Declaration of August 1945, and the stabilization of the recently established democracy, marking the end of the Spanish Transition.Raimundo Basols Jacas. Interaction between the government and the Spanish civil society during the negotiations for Spain's accession to the European Union (in Spanish).
Chronology of its incorporation The first stance of the Franco government in the face of the constitution of the European institutions was to establish a waiting period in view of the development of events without defining an official policy. At the beginning of 1960, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs was considering three alternatives: joining the EFTA, joining the European Economic Community, or not opting for either of the two previous institutions. In this sense, in September 1960, a diplomatic mission to the EEC was established with the objective of gathering information and "waiting and seeing.". However, in mid-1961, events linked to the integration process led to a change of strategy in Spanish foreign policy with respect to the European project, as it became clear that the wait-and-see position and the real possibility of Spain's isolation was a dead end. For example, in this sense, the Directorate General of Foreign Policy, in October 1961, drafted a report in which it defended the need to make a political decision regarding the Common Market. Association with the EEC was chosen as the most appropriate way; the Foreign Office authorities thought that the Spanish economy was not ready for accession and that this also required a political homologation, which the Spanish government was not willing to accept.
The application for association Spain applied for the status of an associated country to the European Economic Community for the first time on February 9, 1962, in a letter written by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Fernando Maria Castiella to the President of the Council of Ministers of the EEC, the French Maurice Couve de Murville: on the basis of "Spain's European vocation," its geographical situation, and its economic interests, the Francoist government requested in this letter "an association capable of eventually reaching full integration after completing the necessary steps to bring the Spanish economy into line with the conditions of the Common Market".José Ángel Sotillo Lorenzo. Latin America in the negotiations for Spain's accession to the European Community (in Spanish). However, since the EEC preferred Spain to have a democratic regime, accession was denied by a mere acknowledgement of receipt by letter on March 6. In fact, by that year, documents were being drawn up demanding that to become a member, they had to be democratic states:Las tres fases de la UEM. Banco de España (in Spanish).
The Birkelbach report: on January 15, 1962, MEP Willi Birkelbach presented a report in the European Parliament entitled The Political and Institutional Aspects of Accession or Association to the Community, where this requirement was demanded. But it did not preclude other types of relations. Saragat Memorandum: in May 1962, the Italian delegation in the Council of Ministers requested that the basis of the political regime should have criteria like those of the founders. In this case it also prevented any association. The veto in the Council of Ministers of the Community: the ECSC, EEC, and Euratom Treaties required unanimity of votes in the council for the incorporation of new states. In addition, it had to be ratified by the respective Parliaments.
This requirement was made explicit in 1964 by the European Parliament:States whose governments lack democratic legitimacy and whose peoples do not participate in government decisions —either directly or through freely elected representatives— cannot be admitted to the Community.Laura del Alizal. España en la Comunidad Económica Europea: un balance inicial (in Spanish).However, this was flexible and ambiguous as demonstrated by the various agreements with Greece and the former African colonies made prior to the Spanish request.
Thus, on February 14, 1964, the Spanish ambassador to the EEC Carlos Miranda y Quartín (Count of Casa Miranda) recalled the previous letter and requested talks with the Community. On this occasion, on July 2, 1964, the Council authorized the commission to carry out these exploratory conversations, which began on November 9, 1964. On November 23, 1966, the Commission issued a detailed report on the talks in which it recommended a two-stage customs formula for integrating the Spanish economy into the Community economy. It was not approved by the Council of Ministers and on July 11, 1967, it established, together with the working groups, a negotiation mandate.
The Spanish position with respect to European integration was one of distrust, since it clashed with the prevailing Spanish nationalism of the time and demanded an unforeseen democratization. Since the Franco regime could not survive in isolation, it had initiated economic liberalization in 1959 with the National Economic Stabilization Plan. In any case, for the Community, Spain was not a priority with respect to the negotiation of new candidacies, instead choosing to prioritize the United Kingdom's negotiations, which would have an effect on Spanish candidacy. There were also differences between the member states, such as Belgium (in which the position of the socialist president Paul-Henri Spaak stood out) and Italy, which did not admit Franco's Spain as an associated state; that of Federal Germany and France, which were in favor; and the undefined position of the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Among these conditioning factors were significant protests of the European left not to enter into relations with a government that did not respect human rights.
For all these reasons, the political solution was to negotiate with a purely economic purpose, which led to the signing of a Preferential Agreement initialed on June 29, 1970, which implied a reduction in tariffs between the EEC and Spain. This agreement provided for a reduction of 21% for agricultural products and 53% for industrial products, and 13% and 22% for industrial products, respectively.Araceli Mangas Martín. Ampliación de la CEE. Jornadas de estudio en el marco de la unión de partidos socialistas (in Spanish). This was extended on January 29, 1973, with a Protocol.Representación Permanente de España ante la Unión Europea. Historia (in Spanish).
Application for accession During the political transition, a new application was made by the Spanish Government, presided by Adolfo Suárez, on July 26, 1977. Following this, the Commission approved the commencement of accession negotiations on November 29, 1978, beginning on February 5, 1979. This was a political decision to strengthen the incipient democracies of Greece, Portugal and Spain, but it entailed major economic difficulties given the lesser development of these southern European states and meant that the EEC would now have 329 million inhabitants, which entailed major institutional and economic changes.
At the same time, from the beginning of this new application, between 1977 and 1980, Spain had to fulfill several of the requirements for this adhesion in relation to the common European values and the respect for the dignity of the person:
It ratified the International Covenants on Civil Rights and on Economic and Cultural Rights of the United Nations. It joined the Council of Europe (a body distinct from the European Community), where it signed the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. It also subscribed to the European Social Charter and recognized the competence of the European Commission of Human Rights to deal with individual complaints.
The accession negotiation
UCD government
Although none of the nine states that made up the EEC at the time opposed the enlargement, the negotiations lasted more than six years, until March 1985. Greece's negotiations were completed much earlier, signing in May 1979 and joining on January 1, 1981. The European Community then consisted of the six veteran states: the Federal Republic of Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; and also those that joined in 1973, Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Negotiations began in Brussels on February 5, 1979, with Jean François-Poncet as President of the council, and were attended by Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, as Minister of Relations with the European Communities, and Marcelino Oreja, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, on the Spanish side.6 At that time both parties were in a situation of change, both the Community, which was undergoing a profound process of transformation, and Spain, where the political forces were trying to reform the political system to achieve a democratic regime. In Spain there was unanimity among the political forces for joining the EEC, something that did not occur with other foreign policy positions with strong discrepancies in the relationship with the US and NATO membership and relations with the Third World (especially with the Arab and Ibero-America countries).
In relation to economic negotiations, Spanish agricultural production represented an increase of one third of Community production, with large surpluses of wine, fruit and vegetables, which competed with the production of France and Italy. On the other hand, the iron and steel industry and textile production were competitive, although less so than that of the Community, but this meant that there was reluctance on the part of the other member countries. The rest of the industry was made up of small and medium-sized companies that had been highly protected until then and were not problematic. The industrial sector, with decades of protectionism, given its weight in GDP and employment, was key to the economic success of accession, which was technically easier than agriculture, since a few general rules were applied, which was totally different from the latter, which had to be done almost product by product and was highly politically charged.