When did Spain join the European Community?

Spain joins the European Community

España entra en la Comunidad Europea

1 January 1986. In 1962 Franco's Spain asked to be associated with the European Economic Community, but the Community would not take in a dictatorship.

Where: Spain, Portugal, Madrid

What happened

In 1962 Franco's Spain asked to be associated with the European Economic Community, but the Community would not take in a dictatorship. Democratic Spain applied in 1977, signed its treaty of accession at the Royal Palace in Madrid on 12 June 1985, and joined on 1 January 1986, together with Portugal. It had entered NATO in 1982, and in a referendum in March 1986 voters chose to stay in. European funds helped pay for motorways and high-speed railways, and in 2002 euro notes and coins replaced the peseta.

Say it

España entró en la Comunidad Europea el 1 de enero de 1986.

Spain joined the European Community on 1 January 1986.

Why it matters

Europe anchored Spanish democracy and paid for its modernisation; forty years on, Spain is the EU's fourth economy and a bridge between Europe and Latin America, and 'Europa' in Spanish politics still means normality.

Connected

• The return to democracy (1977–1990)
• The Constitution of 1978 (6 December 1978)
• The Constitution of 1978 (6 December 1978)
• The coup attempt of 23-F (23–24 February 1981)
• The coup attempt of 23-F (23–24 February 1981)
• Franco is moved from the Valley of the Fallen (24 October 2019)
• Franco is moved from the Valley of the Fallen (24 October 2019)

• Before: The coup attempt of 23-F
• After: The Instituto Cervantes is created

Sources

1. Spain and the European Union — Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, Unión Europea y Cooperación