40 years of Portugal in the EU. What's next?

Forty years after Portugal’s accession to the European Communities, the conference “40 years of Portugal in the EU: What’s next?” will take a look, with the benefit of hindsight, at Portugal’s membership of the EU and reflect on the future of Europe and the country’s place in it.

Participants will review how European integration has transformed Portugal and the extent to which the European Union’s westernmost, Atlantic-minded Member State has contributed to shaping it as an open political and economic entity.

Looking to the future, the conference will explore how the EU may evolve in the coming decades and how it should respond to major domestic and global challenges. It will also consider how Portugal should position itself to strengthen its internal cohesion, competitiveness and prosperity.

Speakers will share their invaluable insights and expertise as senior leaders with solid experience in Portuguese, European and global governance at the highest level. They will provide both “views from inside” and “views from outside”, combining a national Portuguese perspective with a wider European one.

–

The conference aims to stimulate further reflection among political and civil society leaders on how Portugal and the EU should act decisively against the background of pressing and unprecedented geopolitical, geo-economic and geo-technological challenges, while remaining faithful to the common values and interests that led to Portugal’s accession to the European Communities in 1986.

The conference title sums up its purpose: “40 years of Portugal in the EU: What’s next?” Stemming from it, the following guiding questions will frame the debates: What went well? What could we have done better? What does Portugal need to do? And what should change within the European Union?