Portugal is nowadays a “dead
state walking”. Is this something we should be surprised of? Not quite.
Especially for those who really know the recent – and not recent- history of
this small country, located at the deep south of Europe. Is this related and
moreover a consequence of the economic crisis? Perhaps, but not really. The
issue is not only economic, it is also and principally structural.
Portugal has always been proud
of its past as maritime empire, which broke the all records of longevity at a
worldwide level. This country has decide in 1974 to turn toward Europe and do
not deal with the ocean anymore, which is still bound to a dictatorship that
ended the 25 April of the same year.
A remarkable transfer of money
and financial assistances in general, were released from the EU (CEE at that
time) in order to help and to prepare the Portuguese state to be ready for its
entrance in the European Union. So it was that in 1986 a country structurally weak
became part of the EU togheter with its Spanish
cousins.
Therefore an abandon politics
of our prosperous sector: the sea, was enforced.
What we are talking about, is
the implementation of measures and orders from the Eu community in order to
have a healthy internal market. Our fishing industry sector has been thus
abandoned. Thousands jobs have been lost,
directly and indirectly, in the time of a night. The dream to become a commercial
passage harbour for every cargo ship that comes in Europe, is now over. The
project to develop the Sines’s harbour, a crucial point for the transit of fuel
and gas within the Union, turned out to be a washout, it falls literally into
water (how ironic is this?).
In these years Portugal has
developed multiple industries and companies, but they already left the country.
This is a main problem of our country, but i won’t get deeper in it, because
this is not the place to discuss about how some sectors developed better than
others.
What’s really important now is that EU has get ambitious, too much ambitious.
The process of Europeanization should not be mandatory or fast, it takes a lot of time.
Since 1986 Portugal has
gradually sacrificed his identity in the name of a bigger project, which
certainly is the EU. But the abandon of a culture and a way of life only for
economic and financial reasons, amplify the consequences of the economic slaps taken
everyday. The structure of Portugal was simply not ready for entry union and
neither has been developed in recent years to survive the European market.
This desire to run at all
costs towards a European identity does nothing but delay the European dream. I'm
not saying that Europe has failed. I think that Portugal has gained a lot with
his entry, far more than he lost. I just critize the choice of Portugal to rely
too much on the “big mother” EU, for fear of missing the train “development
train” putting aside its true nature of entrepreneur of the seas and oceans.
The existence of a European
identity is now a lie. Defend it in the short term would be, once more, shut
our eyes in front of our past mistakes. Defend it by keeping in mind the
silence of EU in confront of what happened in Romania and Bulgaria makes this
EU feeling a big Hypocrisy.
Let’s think about in a long
term. The 12th November the German Prime Minister Angela Merkel, will come
to Portugal, in this occasion we’ll see how integrated in the EU family is
Portugal, (By the way does exist a Eu family feeling?) . We’ll also understand,
after several meetings, if taxes on tears and blood will be applied together
with a “Saudade” legislation.
Viva (for the moment) the
Europe of Nations.
Guilherme Lopes
Universidade Catòlica Portugueisa, Oporto
Insitut d'Etudes Politiques,
Toulouse
Translated by Nader Moukarzel
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