Portugal Marks 40 Years in the European Union As EU Is Urged to Act or Fail
Updated: 11 hours ago
The year after Portugal joined the European Union marked the start of the Erasmus program, promoting the mobility of university students across EU nations. The Portuguese mentality has become much more open-minded since accession in 1986, said Carlos Moedas, who said that, as one of the first Erasmus applicants, his teacher said no. "What could I expect to gain abroad? It was a closed mind. This openness of mindset happened in my generation," said Moedas, 56, the Lisbon Municipality President, who changed his teacher's decision. (Photo from Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos)
"A sense of urgency" was repeated by diplomats, economists, politicians and academicians, who highlighted the need for it at the Forty Years of Portugal in Europe. What's next? conference in Lisbon.
Along with the call for action, qualities, such as risk-taking, competitiveness, assertiveness, and the license to fail, also were cited as essential for the health of the European Union, founded after World War II ended in 1945. Intergovernmental organizations, such as NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) (1948), the Council of Europe (1949) and the European Economic Community (1957) signified closer cooperation.
How European are these qualities?
In 1986, Portugal joined the European Union, 12 years after the Carnation Revolution and liberation from an authoritarian government, which it had suffered for nearly 50 years. In joining the European Union, "we would no longer be alone" in our goal of democracy, said António Vitorino, 69, European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs (1999-2004), a deputy in the Assembleia da República at age 23, and a former justice on the Constitutional Court.
The world stage has changed since the 1940s, the 1980s and dramatically so, again, at this moment, which delivers uncertainty.
Fifteen Portuguese and other European moderators and speakers, including a former Prime Minister of Portugal and a former President of Lithuania, shared their expertise in diplomacy, economics and politics. Attended by more than 400, the conference was sponsored by the Fundação Francisco Manuel Dos Santos and held at the Technical Innovation Center on October 26.
"Portugal needs a more pro-active society and people who decide what is to be done," said João Vale de Almeida, EU Ambassador to the United States, United Nations and United Kingdom (2010-2020) and the organizer of the event. Almeida, 69, is the author of Divorce of Nations (2025).
"Some challenges are existential ones, and why it's urgent to be urgent. There is a divorce of nations on a global level and another on a national level. We need to stop being sleepy and wake up. We have to avoid glorifying the past. It's irresponsible to bury our heads in the sand. . . .
"(However,) let us not underestimate Portugal and Europe's ability to overcome hurdles with rigor, ambition, boldness, more growth and convergence, more competition, more knowledge and, why not, more housing," probably alluding to the recent demonstrations in Lisbon and other Portuguese and European cities for fair housing, whose cost has not been bloated, and a ceiling on security deposits.
Portugal and Spain joined the European Communities in 1986. Portuguese Prime Minister Mário Soares is signing on the far left.
Several speakers acknowledged The Future of European Competitiveness, by Mario Draghi, the economist who headed the European Central Bank (2011-2019) and the former prime minister of Italy (2021-2022). In the report released two years ago, Draghi urged the European Union to catch up with the United States and China in productivity, innovation and scale or suffer "a slow agony".
José Manuel Durão Barroso
José Manuel Durão Barroso, president of the European Commission (2004-2014) and Prime Minister of Portugal (2002-2004) spoke and was Interviewed afterwards by Henrique Burnay, a consultant on European affairs.
"We are going through a structural transformation because of the competition between the United States and China, which will continue to worsen; a technological revolution; climate and energy impact, and the demographic situation," said José Manuel Durão Barroso.
Barroso called for strong external borders as "there is no political community without borders". However, he asked for balance.
"We need more people to work but, in many societies, there seems to be (a limit) when confronted with different ethnicities and religions."
The PSP police lined up dozens of people, who faced and held the wall with outstretched arms, unable to move for more than an hour, while they waited to be searched, on Rua do Benformoso, a Lisbon street in Largo do Martim Moniz, which is frequented by immigrants, reported Expresso (December 20, 2024).
The need for people in an aging country and continent is real.
For example, the Municipality of Viseu was unable to execute a project to build 180 houses for affordable rent under the PRR (the EU's Recovery and Resilience Plan) due to a lack of contractors. Dozens of public tenders had received no bids from companies, reported SIC Notícias (March 28, 2025).
At the Conference, José Manuel Durão Barroso said that about a dozen upcoming elections creates uncertainty. U.S. President Donald Trump has changed diplomatic language. At one time, Ukraine's invasion by Russia, the biggest European country invading one of the smallest, would have been unpredictable. Years ago, inviting Sweden (1995) and Finland (1995) to join the European Union would have been unpredictable. The worsening situation of the (Persian) Gulf only enhances the uncertainty in the world.
Barroso, 70, asked: "Where is Europe today with a more aggressive Russia, a more assertive China and an unpredictable United States not worthy of trust?"
"Europe has to stop being a geopolitical teenager," said Barroso, "blaming others for its situation. . . . We cannot keep blaming other people. It's time for Europe to take on itself. We need to criticize ourselves. It's typical childish behavior to blame others."
The former Portuguese prime minister said that Europe has shown resiliency. For example, the euro currency has survived, and there was a successful rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
In Portugal, he said, there happened to be a decreased rate of infant mortality. He was talking with U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama, who attributed it to the Mediterranean diet. "No," he told Obama. "The reason is because we have a social model."
However, Barroso continued, "We have barriers-- services, goods, almost like internal tariffs, which we impose on ourselves. Why does the Europe Union have 27 markets rather than one. . . . There is a resistance to transnational union."
Europe does not have a mindset for growth. On the other hand, the Gulf states have shown the willingness to grow bigger.
There is no sense of urgency or political willingness in decision-making situations in the European Union. They say that nothing in the EU happens "until Paris and Berlin agree on it".
"We're really good at making rules. We need enforcement and speed. Ambition. By nature, we are more reactive than proactive."
"We're losing that battle of stability. The center right forgot that it needs an identity. There is an identity for the far right and far left now."
In response to Henrique Burney's question of what next for Portugal, Barroso asked for Portugal to be more assertive in the European Union, commenting that "It makes no sense that 40 years on, Portugal has had only one" president of the European Council, referring to former Prime Minister António Costa (2024 - ).
Carlos Moedas
On a panel, moderated by João Vale de Almeida, with António Vitorino, European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs (1999-2004), Elisa Ferreira, Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms (2019-2024), and Maria Luís Albuquerque, Commissioner for Financial Services and the Savings and Investment Union, since 2024, Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, innovation and Science (2014-2019), illustrated the change which has occurred in Portugal.
In 1986, Moedas said that there were 2,000 doctorates compared to 50,000 today. He also cited his Unicorn Factory funding 2022 initiative, which provides support for start-up companies growth and development, creating a safe haven for innovation in Lisbon.
"I can't wait until we think of ourselves as the best," said the president of Lisbon Municipality, who has highlighted the need to accept and appreciate Portuguese excellence at the award ceremony of the Ilídio Pinho Foundation and the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Sant’iago da Espada, honoring the architect Álvaro Siza Vieira, in December 2023.
Elisa Ferreira
Fellow panelist Elisa Ferreira, 71, said that the European Union supported "a new wind that came through Portugal". It was a small-minded country, Ferreira said. People lived, focused only on themselves. The young changed Europe. Until 2000, Portugal was growing, building infrastructure, health, education, training, institutions. Working methods changed. We began to plan, to audit, which wasn't standard practice.
However, Portugal's purchasing power parity, a comparative measure of the buying power of goods and services, has dropped significantly, which "should raise red flags. It's not enough to have Michelin restaurants."
There is apathy and complacency in city services as well as the desire to promote people but not having the workers. Lisbon's population has increased while the rest of the country's population is "bleeding".
"If Lisbon has increased costs, Lisbon is losing dynamic value."
Thousands demonstrated against a deepening housing crisis outside Portugal's Parliament in Lisbon on October 27, after police, in previous days, used batons and dogs to break up similar protests in the Praça do Rossio, reported AP. One-bedroom apartments in Lisbon typically rent for between 850 euros (about U.S.$950 per month) and 1,750 euros (about U.S.$1,955), according to a rental site. The minimum monthly wage, earned by one out of five workers, is 920 euros (about U.S.$1,028) euros, before tax, according to SAPO (September 21). (Photo by Armanda Franca/AP
Maria Luís Albuquerque
There is a need for competitiveness in the European Union, said Maria Luís Albuquerque, 59.
She said that small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) may be a part of the problem.
SMEs are based on the number of employees, turnover and balance-sheet total, according to the European Commission website. A micro-sized company has fewer than 10 employees, a small company fewer than 50 and a medium-sized company fewer than 250.
"We don't like companies that grow too much," said Albuquerque.
According to the European Commission, 99 percent of all businesses are small- and medium-sized enterprises:
"The definition of an SME is crucial for access to finance and EU-support programs. However, when SMEs grow beyond a certain size, they often face a significant increase in compliance obligations, which can create a 'cliff-edge' effect that discourages growth and limits competitiveness.
"To address this challenge, the European Commission has worked on a new category, the small mid-cap (SMC), to provide a more gradual transition for growing businesses."
The new category of 250 to 749 employees allows for a lighter administrative burden. There are 38,000 such firms in Europe. The European Commission is proposing changes to extend certain SME benefits to SMCs. "We will provide details soon."
Philippe Aghion, 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics
Economists Luis Garicano, Professor of Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Executive Director of the Rhine Group, founded in August to translate Mario Draghi's competitiveness report into concrete reforms; Ricardo Reis, Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and member of the Board of Trustees of the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, and Philippe Aghion, Professor at the Collège de France and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2025 (pre-recorded video) discussed the challenges of businesses in the European Union.
Luis Garicano said that once you hit 50 employees, there are big regulations. So, you stop at 49. "Growing is a big pain in the neck."
Philippe Aghion, 70, said that, in the late 1980s, the five most innovative U.S. firms are not the same today. However, in Europe, they are the same mid-tech firms.
"European research fails to break through. Many companies move from Europe to the U.S. Why? They don't have the proper ecosystem."
The Nobel Prize winner said that companies need to be able to fail, be risk-takers, and have access to venture capital and institutional investors. European pension funds invest in U.S. innovators. Breakthroughs in U.S. and China lack European markets. European firms want to grow without a big market.
The French economist said that he supports a coalition of the willing, including France, the United Kingdom, Portugal and Canada, to accelerate Mario Draghi's agenda, with the proviso that the election in France is not won by Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Rally and a longtime critic of the European Union.
Luis Garicano
Luis Garicano said that he also backs a coalition of the willing consisting of six or seven countries.
Garicano, who was born in 1967, said that, in 1980, Europe was on the frontier of cars. Eastern Europe was converging into a single market. But mutual recognition does not exist. Countries find obstacles for other countries. There is excessive law-making: 13,000 pieces of EU legislation (between 2019 and 2024).
The Brussels effect, the power of the EU to unilaterally shape global standards through its own internal regulations, is "a big mistake".
"We are rule-makers, but nobody is following us. We're hampering our own firms."
With "gold-plated laws", nations are taking on their own fragmentation.
The Spanish economist said he supports the creation of a European Union incorporated firm. There is a non-European Union EU-Inc ecosystem, which creates "one real European company standard, not another layer on top of 27 national systems", according to its website. And there is EU Inc, created in January 2025 as a "28th regime as part of a broader strategy to strengthen the competitiveness of the European economy", according to the European Commission's website.
Garicano added that you cannot open a bank account or hire someone from another EU country easily, the latter probably not without the help of a large U.S. firm, Remote.
"The system is glitching, not failing."
Garicano was a member of the European Parliament (2018-2022) and co-drafted the post-pandemic European Recovery and Reconstruction Fund.
Maybe the reason we do not change is because the narratives are wrong, he said. Maria Luís Albuquerque's proposal to integrate stock markets was compromised by others. Germany did not want to be included, so it included a new rule -- the integrated stock markets have to be in multiple countries, which is not the case for Germany's regional markets.
On December 4, 2025, Albuquerque, European Commissioner for Financial Services and the Savings and Investment Union, delivered a speech in Brussels:
"Today, the College has adopted our Market Integration and Supervision Package, which envisages to remove barriers to a more integrated financial market in the European Union. Since our first proposal on securitization in June, we have moved decisively -- from financial literacy, and saving and investment accounts, to supplementary pensions, and now market integration and supervision.
"With every proposal, I have stood here and stressed the political urgency driving our strategy.
"Choosing not to act -- sticking with the status quo -- choosing to tolerate the barriers and fragmentation we know so well, leads only one way -- to a Europe that invests too little, grows too slowly and loses ground geopolitically and economically. That is not a path the Europeans or Europe can afford."
At the conference, Garicano asked: "What's wrong with the system? It created a machine which lost its purpose."
Ricardo Reis
"We must have a sense of urgency," said Ricardo Reis, who also writes a column in the weekly newspaper Expresso. "The EU is behind the U.S., and China is catching up. I worry that Europe has undervalued its objective: a single-market and prosperity."
Reis, 51, discussed European firms moving to the U.S. , scaling up, and ironically, getting European funding. He also compared the location of medium-sized funds -- in seven to eight states in the U.S. while the average European firm may be in two countries (for example, 99 percent French and 1 percent Belgian).
Reis said that Europe has to lose the habit of distribution through taxation, implying that the U.S. tax system is more favorable to companies.
Strategic dependence, competitiveness, productivity: "The answer is buying from different places. More trade with more places."
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was flexibility.
AI is the new industrial revolution, said Reis.
Garicano pointed out that the United States has a far greater capacity for storing data than Europe.
"We need data centers, otherwise we can't have data at home. We run out of places.
Portugal has energy, water and sun. Data centers in the U.S. are less popular than prisons."
Data centers have become a major risk for the U.S. politicians who support them, reported Politico (October 25). Half of Americans oppose data centers being built within three miles (4.8 kilometers) of their home, according to results from The Politico Poll, nearly double the share of people who said the same in January (28 percent).
Americans worry about the environmental impact, which includes increased use of water and electricity.
In 1988, there was reform of the EEC Structural Funds, with a considerable increase in support for economic and social cohesion, according to Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos (FFMS). (Photo from FFMS)
Catherine De Vries
Catherine De Vries, Professor of Political Science at IE University (Madrid) talked the audience through statistics relating to the reactions of European Union citizens to countries' accession and their concerns.
Seventy-eight percent of Portuguese respondents said that joining the European Union has had a positive effect on democracy compared to 22 percent who hold a negative view, said the Dutch political scientist. These results are well above the EU average of 61 percent positive compared to 39 percent negative. France was the only country where a majority (55 percent) perceived a negative impact.
Portugal leads Europe in positive economic evaluations (78 percent), indicating widespread recognition of the economic benefits of integration followed by Germany (72 percent), Poland (68 percent) and Spain (68 percent).
Seventy percent of European citizen respondents believe that Portugal's membership has had a positive impact on the EU compared to 30 percent who hold a negative view.
"As the European Union considers further expansion to countries, such as Ukraine, Moldova and the western Balkans, public opinion is crucial in determining the political feasibility of the project," said De Vries, in Portugal at 40: Public perceptions of European enlargements in retrospect, Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos.
"The case of Portugal demonstrates that enlargement can, over time, become widely recognized as beneficial. However, it also shows that such recognition may not translate into immediate or unconditional support for new rounds of expansion."
The European Union must act collectively, De Vries told the conference.
In 1991, Portugal signed the Schengen Agreement, taking a decisive step toward the country's future integration into the European area of free movement, reported FFMS.
Dalia Grybauskaite
Dalia Grybauskaite, President of the Republic of Lithuania (2009-2019) and European Commissioner for Budget (2004-2009) and Pascal Lamy, European Commissioner for Trade (1999-2004) and vice-president and co-founder of the European think tank, Jacques Delors Foundation, were on a panel moderated by Paul Adamson, founder and editor of Encompass magazine.
Lithuania was one of the 10 countries which joined the European Union on May 1, 2004, the largest single-day expansion in the organization's history.
"If not for Putin and Trump, we would not be in the better place we are today. It's about political will," said Dalia Grybauskaite, 70, referring to the Europe Union's increased military spending.
"I like crises."
Pascal Lamy
Pascal Lamy, 79, responded: "I don't believe that societies can be built on threats. . . . "
"There are two challenges to 2050: whether we influence the course of the world, environment makes or even takes; and whether the EU sustains its identity. Today, the answer is no."
The French political consultant underscored that the European Union is highly dependent on the U.S.-China rivalry. He warned that if the EU's growth potential is not doubled, the EU will not work.
With regard to market integration, he said that there are three big holes: finance, energy and connectivity. It is doable, even necessary, to fill these holes. It is not about money; it is about twisting arms.
"Europe is good at making science from money, not making money from science."
"The answer is simple: Do it. Integration by 27. We don't need more time."
Moderator Paul Adamson asked about Ukraine accession to the EU.
Dalia Grybauskaite said that absorption capacity matters. Turkey no. Baltic countries are now rearing up. After 20 years, without Ukraine, there would be no European security.
Pascal Lamy responded:
"Ukrainians would not fight the way they fight if they would not join the EU one day. . . .
For the moment, the big spotlight is on Ukraine fighting but no support for joining the EU. Same with Balkans. It has become a taboo. No one is talking about it. In most countries, they would need a referendum, which takes five years.
Grybauskaite added:
"Public opinion depends on leaders, politicians. In Europe, the strongest army is Ukraine's. There are big ones in the U.K. and Germany. The others aren't worth talking about. Without Ukraine, there is no NATO pillar in 10 years."
Adamson asked about the relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom, which left the EU on January 31, 2020, after 47 years.
Grybauskaite said that during some of the negotiations, U.K. representatives were using both the British curency of pounds and the European Union currrency of euros in their discussions. "Will they join back? I don't think so."
Pascal Lamy said:
"I'm French and a big Anglophile, which is suspect. I always thought that the U.K. was part of Europe. They got drunk one day, and they exited. I don't believe that a formal re-accession is in the cards."
However, I say that we must "pretend we have divorced and keep sleeping together".
Martim Sousa Tavares Leads His Orchestra
To end the five-hour conference, Martim Sousa Tavares conducted his youth Orchestra Without Borders in several Portuguese pieces within historical contexts. Based in Idana-a-Nova, Castelo Branco District, the orchestra's purpose is to reduce cultural inequality between Portugal's heavily populated coastal cities and its less populated interior region.
The music reminded this writer of a poem selection, which Expresso newspaper once regularly ran on Page E3 in the Economics section, and the essentialness of music, literature, art, dance and culture to the enrichment of life and human development.
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