The 40th anniversary of Portugal’s accession to the then European Communities was celebrated with great pomp and circumstance, as is customary, but it seems to me that little or perhaps nothing was said at the solemn ceremonies organized in Lisbon about the fact that on the same date the Azores – and indeed Madeira – also became part of those entities, with their own personality and after thorough participation in the negotiations. The Azores are an Autonomous Region of the Portuguese Republic, with their own governing bodies, as established by the Constitution itself, so that not everything that is said about the Republic applies automatically and indiscriminately to our islands! This was very clearly established from the outset in the minds of the Azorean leaders and was also accepted, with varying degrees of difficulty, by the heads of the sovereign bodies, for which they deserve credit. António Ramalho Eanes and Mário Soares, who first held the offices of President of the Republic and Prime Minister, deserve to be mentioned in this regard. The European negotiations for the first Regional Government, which I had the honor of presiding over, were not easy.

First of all, it had to be decided whether our goal should be to join the European Communities or to remain outside them. At the time, there was a certain degree of distancing or even retreat on the part of some island regions that were members of the European institutions. This was the case of the Channel Islands, located in the English Channel, and the Isle of Man, situated between Great Britain and Ireland, which invoked their tax privileges and the fact that they did not belong to the United Kingdom, articulating themselves with the Sovereign in strictly feudal terms… However, some Danish islands, notably Greenland, were even negotiating their withdrawal from the European Communities, as they were uncomfortable with what was then still in its infancy: common fisheries policies and Community intervention in maritime affairs. Our decision, as is well known, was to join the European integration process, given the economic importance of agriculture, which was highly valued at the European level at the time by the Common Agricultural Policy.

However, we also sought to safeguard regional specificities and define what we had already called a European policy for the islands. The Regional Government was present at the various stages of the complex negotiations for Portugal’s accession to the European Communities, represented by my Deputy and later Undersecretary, Carlos Freitas da Silva, who was also a member of the Government. We successfully obtained the necessary derogations to protect our own interests, particularly in agriculture and fisheries. Above all, we received a special reference in a document annexed to the Accession Treaty, the “Joint Declaration on the economic and social development of the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira,” which is reproduced below to refresh some memories: The High Contracting Parties recall that among the fundamental objectives of the European Economic Community is the constant improvement of the living and working conditions of the peoples of the Member States, as well as the harmonious development of their economies, by reducing inequalities between the various regions and the backwardness of the least favored regions. They note that the Government of the Portuguese Republic and the Authorities of the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira are committed to a policy of economic and social development aimed at overcoming the disadvantages of these regions resulting from their geographical situation far from the European continent, their particular topography, their serious infrastructure deficiencies, and their economic backwardness. They recognized that it was in their common interest for the objectives of this policy to be achieved and recalled that specific provisions relating to the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira were adopted in the instruments of accession. The High Contracting Parties agree to recommend, to this end, that the institutions of the Community pay special attention to achieving the above objectives.

“The text reproduced was agreed upon between Mário Soares, Alberto João Jardim, and me, and marked national and European commitments of great importance. If you ask me whether, 40 years on, all these objectives have been achieved, I would have to say that there is still a lot of work to be done, but it must be recognized that much has improved and that Europe has become a very different reality for us. I have said to my students at the University of the Azores that a true ‘Copernican revolution’ has taken place, because for centuries the Azorean people lived with their eyes turned towards the American continent, where so many Azoreans emigrated, first to Brazil, then to the United States and more recently to Canada.I have taught the same students that there is a before and after in Europe since the Azores and Madeira came onto the scene: a different attention to the problems and difficulties of the European islands and their significance for Europe, which has taken the form of support programs that are still in place today and the definition of a specific status for the outermost island regions, enshrined in an article of the 2007 Treaty of Lisbon.

.João Bosco Mota Amaral was the President of the Government of the Azores between 1976 and 1995.

In Diário dos Açores – Paulo Viveiros, director

NOVIDADES features occasional opinion pieces from various leading thinkers and writers in the Azores, providing the diaspora and those interested in the current state of the Azores with insight into the diverse opinions on some of the archipelago’s key issues.

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) at California State University-Fresno.