Entre la reforma y la ampliación, (1976-1986) : las negociaciones hispano-comunitarias en tiempos de transición y "approfondissement"

Abstract

The relations between Spain and the EEC have been studied by a number of specialists from various disciplines and different countries. Most of them have focused on the political meaning of Spain’s European integration, interpreting it as a chapter in the country’s transition from dictatorship to democracy that began in November 1975. Historians have usually seen the European Community as a natural destiny for Spain and not as an interested party with its own interests and rules, different from those of the Governments in Madrid. In their treatment of the enlargement negotiations, these scholars have differentiated two stages, coincident with the successive governments of UCD and the PSOE. The former had presided over a period of problems and disappointments coming out of the then complicated relations with France. Those started to improve after the Socialist victory in the Spanish general elections of 1982, which gave way in Madrid to a cabinet of the same political colour than that ruling in Paris. Those adhering to this perspective tend also to identify the negotiations with the European Community as part of the diplomatic interactions between Spain and France, ignoring the complex nature of ever-­‐changing and complex international organizations such as the EEC. Therefore, we deem it necessary to refocus the analysis of Spain’s integration to link it to the broader history of the EU enlargement, which in turn was highly influenced by the internal situation of each Member State1. If the social, economic and political changes Spain underwent after Franco’s death conditioned the approach, objectives and strategies of its European partners, also did the delicate international economic scenario of the 1970s, the dialectics of the Cold War or the electoral calendars in several countries...