On 18 January 1971, the Portuguese Foreign Ministry sends to its Diplomatic Missions abroad a confidential circular to inform them of the operation and aims of the exploratory talks which began on 7 January in Brussels between Ruy Teixeira Guerra, Head of the Portuguese Delegation, and Edmond Wellenstein, Director-General of Foreign Trade at the Commission of the European Communities.

On 22 July 1972, in Brussels, the European Economic Community (EEC) and the Portuguese Republic sign an agreement which provides for the dismantling of tariffs on industrial goods and on certain agricultural products.

On 22 July 1972, at the signing in Brussels of the Trade Agreement between Portugal and the European Economic Community (EEC), Rui Patrício, Portuguese Foreign Minister, delivers an address in which he places particular emphasis on the need to deepen relations and extend the areas of cooperation between Portugal and the European Communities.

In 1974, General António de Spínola, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Portuguese Armed Forces in Africa, is dismissed for having published his book entitled Portugal e o Futuro. Análise da conjuntura nacional [‘Portugal and the Future'] in which he advocates an end to the colonial wars. His dismissal incites military insurgents to take part in the coup d'état of 25 April 1974 and what becomes known as the ‘Carnation Revolution'.

On 25 April 1974, at the outset of the military revolt and the ‘Revolution of the Carnations', Portuguese soldiers take up their positions in the centre of Lisbon.

On 25 April 1974, during the ‘Carnation Revolution’, the Portuguese army is cheered by the crowds of people gathered in the streets of central Lisbon.

On 25 April 1974, reporting on the early stages of the military insurrection and the ‘Carnation Revolution’, the Portuguese daily newspaper Diário de Notícias assesses the situation in Lisbon.

On 26 April 1974, the French daily newspaper Le Monde considers the consequences of the military insurrection and of the ‘Carnation Revolution’ in Portugal and analyses the ambitions of the new military regime.

On 29 April 1974, four days after the military coup d'état in Portugal, the Junta for National Salvation holds its first press conference. From left to right: Captain António Alva Rosa Coutinho, Captain José Baptista Pinheiro de Azevedo, General Francisco da Costa Gomes, General António de Spínola, Brigadier Jaime Silvério Marques and Colonel Carlos Galvão de Melo.

In April 1974, the French cartoonist, Plantu, illustrates the consequences of the military coup d’état and the ‘Carnation Revolution’ in Portugal and looks at the ambitions of the new military regime.

On 1 May 1974, crowds of people throng the streets and squares of Lisbon to celebrate the overthrow, one week previously, of the Salazar dictatorship.

On 19 November 1974, Roger Hastert, Luxembourg Ambassador to the Netherlands, forwards to Gaston Thorn, Luxembourg Foreign Minister, a letter in which he gives an account of his meeting with Mr G. Meijer, Special Adviser to Max van der Stoel, Netherlands Foreign Minister, on the process of political democratisation in Portugal.

Following the ‘Carnation Revolution’ of spring 1974, all monuments erected to the glory of the Salazar regime are destroyed. In the village of Santa Comba Dão, birthplace of António de Oliveira Salazar, a statue of the former Head of State is decapitated.

‘We never want to be apart again …’ On 13 March 1975, eleven months after the military coup and the beginning of the Carnation Revolution in Portugal, Fritz Behrendt, a Dutch cartoonist originally from Berlin, paints an ironic picture of the country’s future and speculates on the process of political democratisation in Portugal and the ambitions of the country’s military.

In 1975, a soldier symbolically places a carnation and a rose in his rifle, as Portugal prepares to celebrate 1 May as a recently liberated nation.

On 25 April 1975, General Francisco da Costa Gomes (right), President of the Portuguese Republic, casts his vote in the elections held in Lisbon for the National Constituent Assembly.

On 3 June 1975, Portugal’s National Constituent Assembly holds its first session following the elections of 25 April, won by the Socialists under the leadership of Mário Soares.

On 25 July 1975, in an article published in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro, Raymond Aron comments on the predicament of French political leaders in the light of the impact of the political crisis in Portugal which pits the Socialist Party of Mário Soares against the Communists supported by the Movement of the Armed Forces (MFA).

In April 1976, the German cartoonist Horst Haitzinger takes an ironic look at the outcome of the legislative elections held in Portugal on 25 April 1976 — the date of entry into force of the new Portuguese Constitution — which result in the rise of the Socialist Party and the decline of the Communist Party.

On 11 June 1976, the Portuguese and European Commission Delegations issue a joint press release in which they set out the scope of the Additional Protocol to the 1972 Free Trade Agreement and of the Financial Protocol, concluded two days earlier in Brussels.

On 16 July 1976, Mário Soares, Socialist Prime Minister of Portugal, convenes his first constitutional government.

On 3 August 1976, the first Portuguese Constitutional Government, led by the Socialist Prime Minister, Mário Soares, publishes its decisions concerning Portugal’s foreign policy.

Financial Protocol between the European Economic Community (EEC) and the Portuguese Republic which was signed on 20 September 1976 and entered into force on 1 November 1978. This Protocol, which aimed to make emergency aid available to Portugal with a view to promoting the accelerated development of its economy, is an integral part of the Agreement of 22 July 1972 between the EEC and the Portuguese Republic.

Additional Protocol to the Agreement between the European Economic Community and the Portuguese Republic dated 22 July 1972. This Protocol, which was signed on 20 September 1976 and which entered into force on 1 November 1978, includes provisions concerning trade measures and cooperation in the area of social policy as well as industrial, technological and financial cooperation.

On 20 September 1976, the European Economic Community and the Portuguese Republic conclude an Interim Agreement designed to bring into force some of the provisions of the Additional Protocol, which they sign the same day, pending its entry into force.

On 20 September 1976, in Brussels, José Manuel de Medeiros Ferreira (left), Portuguese Foreign Minister, Max van der Stoel (centre), Netherlands Foreign Minister and President-in-Office of the Council of the European Communities, and François-Xavier Ortoli (right), President of the European Commission, sign two protocols and an interim trade agreement aimed at extending the Free Trade Agreement of 22 July 1972 in view of Portugal’s application for accession to the European Communities.

On 20 September 1976, in Brussels, at the signing of the Interim Agreement, the Additional Protocol and the Financial Protocol between Portugal and the European Economic Community (EEC), José Manuel Medeiros Ferreira, Portuguese Foreign Minister, delivers an address in which he declares, for the first time, Portugal’s intention to submit an application for accession to the European Communities.

On 7–8 March 1977, Emanuele Gazzo, Editor-in-Chief of Agence Europe, emphasises the need for the Nine to give a clear and rapid political response to Portugal’s forthcoming application for accession to the European Communities.