Portugal joined the EEC 30 years ago on Jan 1st - how things have changed

Think back to a quieter time when there were few motorways, many places in Portugal had neither water, electricity nor sewers and the country was still engaged in farming and fishing.

It was 30 years ago on January 1st that Portugal officially joined the then European Economic Community.

On January 1st, 1986, the country became a full member of ‘Europe,’ the strange place that Salazar had studiously turned his back on as Portugal concentrated on trading with its colonies.

The joining process started in 1977 and the signing of the treaty took place in June 1985 in Lisbon with Portugal becoming a full member on January 1st, 1986.

European funds started to flow into Portugal whose political leaders and business owners were unprepared and failed to use much of it properly, choosing instead to syphon off large sums for personal gain and apply for and complete projects with little economic need or viability.

Portugal in 1986, outside the major urban centers, did not have running water or electricity and sanitation was far from the norm.

The infant mortality rate in 1986 was at 17.8%. Today, the infant mortality rate is 2.8% as the nation’s health service has impoved the lot of many top the extent that there are too many State dependent pensioners living long lives.

The inflow of money from the Social Cohesion Fund after 1986 changed the face of a country where riding a donkey in 1986, was common.

Only 30 years ago Portugal had 167 kilometers of highway; now its has 3,100 Kms with much of it subject to tolls that exclude many who were meant to be benefitting as the fees are unaffordable.

As for education, 1986 there were just over a hundred people with a PhDs. In 2014, there were 1,463 women and 1,205 men with higher qualifications enabling them easily to get jobs overseas. The training of nurses and doctors also has been at a net cost to Portugal's society and exchequor as many are forced to work outside Portugal to make ends meet.

Portugal's generation of well-educated bright young things and being young and bright in Paris, London and Berlin while those left at home have a minimum wage of just over 500 euros a month, if they have a job at all.

Those that set up businesses do so in the face of the State that does everything in its power to frustrate development and screw money out of newbies whose business life expectancy can be measured in months, not years.

The time of farmers and fishermen now is almost over as between the year of accession and 2008, jobs in fishing and agriculture fell by half and are still shrinking as Eruopean quotas shrink the fishing fleet year after year and agricultural subsidies are the only way of keeping the land ploughed.

Shopping centers begin to flood the urban landscape and put grocery stores out of business. Imported products have became the norm and post-euro the economy failed in the 2008 crisis with the President of the Republic, Cavaco Silva, blaming much on Portugal’s European membership.

It was not always so as Cavaco Silva was prime minister when Portugal entered the fold of the EEC.

Silva had formed his first government in 1985, and wrote that EEC integration should "decisively intensify a process of modernisation of the Portuguese economy, in order to ensure industry competitiveness, tourism and increase productivity in the agricultural sector."

Clearly this has not happened, apart from tourism which now is the one area of current growth perhaps due more to the collapse of tourists prepared to risk North African holidays and the recent strength of sterling than a wideneing of appeal to new markets such as nature tourism.

30 years ago, a simple breakfast for four people (one litre of milk and four rolls) would have cost the equivalent of €1.55, taking into account the effect of inflation.

In 2016, the price paid for the same breakfast is around €1.18.

The National Minimum Wage rise to €530 came into force on January 1, 2016, which compares to the equivalent of €368.91 in 1986, an increase of 43.7%.

At the end of 2012, according to figures from Eurostat, in Portugal there were 406 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, against 119.4 registered cars in 1985.

Filling up the car at the end of 2015 cost an average of €1.36 per litre of gasoline compared to the equivalent of €0.55, 30 years ago.

Many in Portugal would like to leave Europe but then sense kicks in. Which other organisation would have arranged the last bailout of the economy and which other organisation continues to send hundreds of millions of euros of grants each year, much of which will again be filtered off before reaching its destination.

This problem is both European and Portuguese and after 30 years, if Brussels continues to throw money at the Portugal probem without asking for progress reports, the results will be the same, a state of permanent indifference and mediocraty.

Was it all worth it? As the UK soon decides whether to, and on what terms, to stay in Europe, can Portugal be said to be better off in or out of the EC?

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