Portugal and Europe: New Citizenships

NOVEMBER 2013

Now almost forty years since 25 April 1974, what does it mean to be a citizen of Portugal today? And how has membership of the European Union changed citizenship rights and how they are exercised?
Throughout the book, jurists, political scientists and sociologists paint a picture of the changes in Portugal in recent decades from the point of view of the different citizenship rights. It is a view that puts political will in contrast with the social and cultural reality of a changing country, with ambitions, contradictions, some failures and as many successes.
As a whole, the texts collected here show how accession to the European Union served to bring about democratic, more equal and more inclusive citizenship, which in many cases had already been legislated for but had not been implemented. While it is true that democratisation in Portugal brought with it a number of citizenship rights, it is also a fact that the legislation was maximalist in a context that was not very conducive from the point of view of social reality. After joining the EU and the consequent Europeanisation and modernisation of the country, some of these rights began to exist in fact, not just in the laws.
Europeanisation insofar as it strengthened the Portuguese State and consolidated it through empowering the government to improve citizenship.