At a press conference held on 19 December 1991, the Portuguese Prime Minister, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, presents the first programme of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Communities.

On 3 January 1992, in Lisbon, Mário Soares (right), President of the Portuguese Republic, Aníbal António Cavaco Silva (left), Portuguese Prime Minister, and Pedro Santana Lopes (centre), Portuguese Junior Minister for Culture, take part in the opening ceremony for the first Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Communities.

The Belém Cultural Centre was built to host events organised in Lisbon during Portugal's Presidency of the Council of the European Communities in the first half of 1992 and has since become an important venue for Portuguese cultural life.

On 7 February 1992, in Maastricht, João de Deus Pinheiro (left), Portuguese Foreign Minister, and Jorge Braga de Macedo (right), Portuguese Finance Minister, sign the Treaty on European Union.

On 7 February 1992, Aníbal António Cavaco Silva, Portuguese Prime Minister and President-in-Office of the Council of the European Communities, delivers an address in which he emphasises the political implications of the Treaty on European Union (EU), signed that day in Maastricht by the Twelve.

José Manuel Durão Barroso, Portuguese Junior Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, and João de Deus Pinheiro, Portuguese Minister for Foreign Affairs, at the Lisbon European Council on 17 February 1992.

On 2 May 1992, in Oporto, the Foreign Ministers of the 12 Member States of the European Communities and those of the seven Member States of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) sign the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA). The Agreement enters into force on 1 January 1994.

On 2 May 1992, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, Portuguese Prime Minister, João de Deus Pinheiro, Portuguese Foreign Minister, and Jacques Delors, President of the European Commission, are present in Oporto for the signing of the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement.

Map showing the establishment, on 2 May 1992, and the development of the European Economic Area (EEA).

Group photo of the informal Council of Ministers for Foreign Affairs held in Guimarães on 2 May 1992.

On 26 and 27 June 1992, the Heads of State or Government of the Twelve meet in Lisbon for a European Council, at the end of which they confirm their commitment to see the Treaty on European Union enter into force on 1 January 1993 and their wish to prepare the enlargement of the EU to include the applicant countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

Conclusions of the Presidency of the Lisbon European Council of 26 and 27 July 1992 concerning, in particular, the ratification of the Treaty on European Union, the forthcoming enlargement and the internal market.