journal of european integration history revue d'histoire de l ...

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Nicolau Andresen-Leitão
the interim period, the Portuguese government would seek a waiver in order to avoid
the application of the common external tariff to the Overseas territories. 27
By postponingthe issue of membership for the Portuguese colonies for fifteen
years, the proposal satisfied the Portuguese Constitution that considered the colonies
as Overseas provinces, allowed for the maintenance of the colonial trade preferences
and sought to make unnecessary any formal consultation between the EEC
and its African associates, since their interests were not affected. This clever solution
had been the brainwork of the EFTA Secretary-General, Sir Frank Figgures, at
the request of Corrêa d’Oliveira. The second major advantage of postponing the issue
for so long was that probably by then both the political and colonial situation in
Portugal would be different. Actually, in 1968 Salazar was forced to leave office
due to illness and in 1975 the Portuguese colonies became independent after the
Democratic Revolution of the previous year, well within the fifteen year time frame
of the proposal.
Although Portugal faced increased external difficulties from 1961 onwards,
with the annexation of Portuguese Goa by India, the outbreak of colonial war in
Angola and intense international pressure from the newly independent African nations,
the rationale behind the Portuguese government’s change of policy in relation
to the EEC, seeking association agreement with the objective of full membership at
a later date, lay in the domestic sphere. Internally the regime led by Salazar was noticeably
weaker, having faced widespread opposition during the 1958 presidential
campaign and an attempted military coup by the Defence minister, Botelho Moniz,
in 1961. Although an authoritarian ruler, Salazar was an able politician seeking to
maintain his power base, and in April 1962 he admitted that if Portugal did not apply
for negotiations with the EEC, “the Portuguese government would put itself in
a very difficult position in relation to the country’s public opinion”. 28 According to
Corrêa d’Oliveira this attitude was imposed by the need to guarantee economic expansion
to satisfy both Portugal's population and war effort in the colonies. 29 During
an EFTA meeting in Oslo in October, Oliveira confirmed to Heath that Portugal
sought negotiations for “internal political reasons”. 30
27. PRO, FO 371/16472, EFTA Secretary-General, Frank Figgures, to Portuguese Foreign ministry director-general
of economic and consular affairs, Ruy Teixeira Guerra, 13 June 1962; FO 371/
164721, Figgures to FO, 9 July 1962; and FO 371/16472119, British delegation to the Brussels
Conference to FO, 9 October 1962. Portugal’s quest for EEC association with the objective of full
membership is well documented in the PRO. The aim of the Portuguese government was stated by
Corrêa d’Oliveira both during EFTA meetings and in direct talks with Heath and senior British officials,
and repeated to Heath by the Portuguese Finance minister, António Manuel Pinto Barbosa,
during a meeting in London on 4 September 1962. Pinto Barbosa elaborated that his government
“had in mind economic arrangements on the same lines” as those obtained by Portugal under Annex
G of EFTA; PRO, FO 371/164718, COMLEE (62) 110, Call by the Portuguese Minister of
Finance on the Lord Privy Seal on September 4 [1962], unsigned.
28. AHD-MNE, Mercado Comum, EOI 210, telegram, Salazar to Portuguese ambassador to Belgium,
Eduardo Vieira Leitão, 19 Abril 1962.
29. C. d’OLIVEIRA, Portugal e o Mercado Comum …, vol.I, op.cit., pp.69-70.
30. PRO, FO 371/164721, Walker to FO, telegram of 21 October 1962.