How joining the EU 40 years ago catapulted Spain into modernity

Forty years ago to the day, on 12th June 1985, at 8.53 p.m. to be exact, an event took place that changed the course of Spanish history: the signing of the Treaty of Accession of Spain to the European Economic Community (EEC), as it was known then, now the European Union.

This presented a seismic shift in Spanish relations with the world, signalling the end of the country’s isolationist and dictatorial past and a turn towards democracy and modernity.

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Spain’s accession to the EU

During the Franco dictatorship, however, Spain did manage to make some inroads into the international community. The signing of a 1953 agreement for the United States to establish military bases on Spanish soil reduced isolationism, and Ministers in the Franco regime increasingly realised that opening the country to foreign markets was necessary and, in this sense, the EEC seemed an obvious target.

However, early members of the European project insisted that Spain could never become a full member unless it was a democracy.

In February 1962, the first step was taken when Franco asked the EEC to open negotiations for Spain's possible accession on purely economic terms. Again Spain was told that economic integration was plausible, but that political negotiations could not start until Spain became a democracy.

“What was very beneficial for Spain was that the response was cordial,’ historian and writer Julio Crespo MacLennan told RTVE.es. “The letter said that Spain could not join because it was not a democracy, but that they were open to establishing a commercial relationship. This was an incentive for Spain because the response was not entirely negative.”

Two years later, in 1964, the regime insisted again and the EEC agreed to establish what they called “exploratory talks”, which culminated six years later, in 1970, with the signing of the Preferential Trade Agreement, which consisted mainly of mutual reductions of tariffs. However, the deal again made clear that this was the most that Francoist Spain could ever hope to obtain from Europe and that only a democratic transition would open up the possibility of full membership.

Franco died on 20th November 1975 and Juan Carlos I became head of state. In just a year and a half, Spain went from being a dictatorship to holding its first free elections in over 40 years in June 1977. The government that emerged from those elections, with Adolfo Suárez as president, made Spain's entry into the EEC a priority, which was now growing in members.

At its first Council of Ministers meeting on 22 July 1977, the new government approved the decision to formally request EEC membership, which this time received a favourable response. However, early optimism faded due to the economic and political context in Spain in 1979 and 1980. Crises like the oil crisis, instability in the Suárez government, the so-called “years of lead” by Basque separatists ETA and an attempted coup d'état in February 1981 slowed the process down as Spanish democracy teetered and Europe watched on.

On top of this, some EEC states, notably France and Italy, weren’t keen to allow the rival Spanish economy into the community. However, the election of François Mitterrand as President of France, Christian Democrat Helmut Kohl as Chancellor in Germany, and, above all, the absolute majority won by Felipe González's PSOE in October 1982, finally paved the way for Spain's entry into the EEC.

In 1985, serious negotiations began on agriculture, fisheries and creating a special arrangement for the Canary Islands. The agreement was finalised on 29 March of that year, with some specific issues on wine and agriculture ongoing, later resolved with bilateral talks with the French in June.

Negotiations came to a successful conclusion and Spain and Portugal became members of the EEC. The symbolic signing of the Treaty of Accession, first held in Lisbon on the morning of 12 June 1985 and then in Madrid in the afternoon, took place at the Royal Palace and was attended by the then President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, and King Juan Carlos I.

The text was later ratified by the Spanish Parliament, and on 1 January 1986, Spain and Portugal officially joined the EEC, bringing an end to more than eight years of negotiations.

The impact on modern Spain

At the signing ceremony, Prime Minister González said that: “For Spain, this event marks the culmination of a process of overcoming our isolation and participating in a common destiny with the rest of the countries of Western Europe.” In many ways, Spain’s accession to the EEC was the key step in modernising the country and moving from dictatorship to democracy.

It represented an opening up to Europe and the world after so many decades of isolationism. Some say it was the most important event in Spain in the entire 20th century.

Former Vice-President of the European Commission Margaritis Schinas, told Spanish state broadcaster RTVE that “The starting point for this is that Spain, like my country, Greece, saw accession as a winning bet on modernity. It was a historic event. I doubt that in the 20th century, Spain and Greece [which joined the EEC in 1981] experienced anything as momentous as accession, from a peripheral country to a central one.”

The 1990s further advanced this modernisation process, as Spain received significant European funds that enabled the development of infrastructure and modernisation of the country. In 1992, two major events symbolised this leap towards modernity and announced Spain’s arrival on the world stage: the Barcelona Olympic Games and the Seville Universal Exposition. La Expo.

The Maastricht Treaty of that same year marked a decisive step towards the creation of the European Union and the future single currency, the Euro. Now Spain is the fourth largest economy in the EuroZone, its strong agricultural sector means that parts of the country are known as the 'Orchard of Europe', the most popular holiday destination among many member states, and has an increasing political role on the continent.

Since joining the EU in 1986, Spain has gone from being a net recipient of European funds – receiving up to 0.8 percent of its GDP in aid – to becoming a net contributor in recent years, mainly because it has not used all the European funds it has received.

In 2023, it contributed more than €13.5 billion to the EU budget and received around €12.1 billion, although it has been one of the largest beneficiaries of the Next Generation fund, with almost €48 billion as of 2024.

At the same time, Spanish GDP has grown significantly: from around €346 billion in 1986 to more than €1.5 trillion in 2024, reflecting an economic modernisation facilitated, in part, by the political modernisation that enabled ECC membership in the first place.

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