Portugal and the European integration process

Foreword


The third Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, held during the second half of 2007, proved to be a propitious moment to review Portugal’s participation in the European integration process. This research corpus, developed in partnership with the Institute of Contemporary History at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and the Jacques Delors European Information Centre (CIEJD), looks back over 60 years of history. It was first published as a ‘Special File’ in European NAvigator in May 2008.


This corpus offers a wide variety of resources for the research community illustrating Portugal’s role in the European venture, from the country’s acceptance of financial aid under the Marshall Plan in 1947 to its signing of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007. The subject is introduced by explanatory texts as well as a chronology and biographical and bibliographical information.


The primary sources mainly come from the Historical Archives of the Council of the European Union, the Diplomatic Archives of the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Historical Archives of the Council of Europe. They are supplemented by a selection of press articles and a collection of images and audiovisual material from the archives of the EU institutions (Commission, Parliament, Council), other European organisations (Council of Europe, OSCE, WEU), the Lusa and Keystone press agencies, the Lisbon Photographic Archives and the Portuguese TV station RTP.


Personal accounts given by eminent Portuguese figures add the finishing touch to the corpus. Exclusive interviews, conducted in Lisbon, have been granted to the CVCE by António Vitorino, José da Silva Lopes and José Medeiros Ferreira.


We offer our special thanks to the team who helped compile the corpus, Professor Maria Fernanda Rollo and Paula Meireles of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, as well as the team from the CIEJD, in particular its Director, Clotilde Câmara Pestana, Margarida Cardoso, Administrator of the Centre until December 2007, and Carlos Medeiros.


We should also like to thank HE Mr Alain de Muyser, Luxembourg Ambassador to Portugal, for his valuable support.


Consult in PDF format