40 Years On, Iberia’s EU Story Shapes a New Europe

A European Parliament anniversary video links Spain and Portugal’s 1986 accession to today’s debates on unity, defence and Europe’s global role.

A new European Parliament video marking the 40th anniversary of Spain and Portugal joining what was then the European Communities returns to a simple idea: membership was not only an economic leap, but a political choice to lock in democracy and reopen the Iberian Peninsula to a shared European future.

The video, built around personal memories and reflections, comes as EU institutions spend early 2026 drawing a line from 1 January 1986—the day Spain and Portugal’s accession took effect—to the Union’s present-day challenges: security pressures on Europe’s borders, strategic competition, and the uneasy state of the transatlantic relationship. The accession itself was formalised by the 1985 Treaty of Accession, signed on 12 June 1985 and entering into force at the start of 1986.

From “return to Europe” to everyday freedoms

For many Spaniards and Portuguese, EU membership became tangible through everyday changes: easier travel, expanding study opportunities, and access to a larger market. In its official anniversary page, the European Commission argues that Iberian membership helped “modernise economies,” deepen trade ties and broaden Europe’s outlook—particularly towards Latin America, Africa and the Mediterranean—while reinforcing democracy and social progress. (See: “40 years together: Spain and Portugal in the EU”.)

In that framing, the anniversary is not nostalgia. It is an attempt to remind audiences that enlargement reshaped Europe’s political identity—linking post-authoritarian transitions to a wider promise of rights and belonging. The Commission also highlights headline figures such as over €250 billion invested in Spanish and Portuguese regions over the period, alongside major support for research and fisheries-linked projects. (Same source.)

A political anniversary, not just a cultural one

The European Parliament has also treated the milestone as a strategic moment. In a formal plenary sitting in January, King Felipe VI of Spain and President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa of Portugal addressed MEPs, with Parliament President Roberta Metsola recalling how the two countries “took their place in the European family” and helped shape the Union in lasting ways.

King Felipe VI used the anniversary to underline how Spain transformed after four decades of membership, while warning that Europe’s defence, strategic autonomy and the European pillar of the Atlantic alliance “cannot be postponed,” according to the Parliament’s account. President Rebelo de Sousa, for his part, stressed the value of alliances and partnerships in a world where no actor can solve global problems alone. (Same Parliament source.)

Why the institutions are telling this story now

The timing matters. Brussels is trying to sustain a sense of political cohesion at a moment when unity is tested by war on the continent, economic pressure, and polarised national debates over sovereignty and identity. The Iberian story is useful to that narrative because it combines two elements the EU often claims as core strengths: a pathway from dictatorship to democracy, and a practical set of benefits that citizens can feel in their daily lives.

For Spain and Portugal, the anniversary is also a reminder that European integration has been a two-way street. Their accession did not simply “add” two member states; it changed how the Union sees its neighbourhoods and interests—from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, and from development and trade to diplomacy and migration policy.

As the European Parliament’s video makes clear, the institutions are asking Europeans to see enlargement history as a living resource: proof that the EU can absorb change and still build consensus—if political will holds.

Related: More EU politics and institutional coverage is available in The European Times’ Europe section.