Forty years ago, Spain and Portugal joined the European Union, making it culturally richer and politically stronger, the European Commission said ahead of the two countries’ accession anniversary on January 1.
Their membership helped create millions of new jobs, modernise economies and deepen trade ties within Europe and beyond, it said in its official website.
According to the Commission, over pound 250 billion was invested in Spanish and Portuguese regions, more than pound 20 billion in EU funding to researchers, while over 140,000 projects benefited from the EU’s fisheries funds.
In these forty years, it added, Europeans have enjoyed more rights, better health and additional freedoms. ‘Spain and Portugal have reinforced democracy and advanced social progress’, and have broadened Europe’s global outlook, particularly towards Latin America, Africa and the Mediterranean, noting that the EU, Spain and Portugal ‘have grown stronger together’.