On 29 October 1990, during the state visit to Portugal by Mauno Koivisto, President of the Republic of Finland, Mário Soares, President of the Portuguese Republic, delivers an address at the Ajuda Palace in Lisbon in which he points out the benefits of a large European Economic Space (EES), later to become the European Economic Area (EEA), involving the Member States of the European Economic Community (EEC) and those of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA).