25 years of the EU! - PCP

Statement by the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the PCP

1 – The political and ideological aims of the celebrations of the 25 years of Portugal’s signing of the Treaty of Accession to the EEC/EU do not erase, but rather confirm, PCP’s warnings on the consequences of this act to the Portuguese people and to the country. The harsh reality encountered by the Portuguese, inseparable from the consequences of the European capitalist integration and the policies associated with it, confirm, 25 years later, the correctness of PCP’s position concerning Portugal’s accession to the EEC and the reasons then stated.

Today, Portugal is not only more unfair and more unequal on the social level and in terms of development of its territory, but also a country which is more dependent, more indebted, more deficitary and more vulnerable. 25 years later, the severe crisis the country faces, although resulting from the right-wing policies at the national level, cannot be separated from the crisis of the bases of the European Union. The record levels of unemployment, Portugal’s stagnation and economic dependence, the destruction of the national productive apparatus, the worsening of exploitation, of social inequalities and injustices are a consequence of the exploitative nature associated to the present process of “European integration”.

2 – The question that should be raised after the 25 years of the signing by Portugal of the Treaty of Accession to the EEC/EU is: what did it serve for and who benefitted from Portugal joining the EEC? The question should be: what serves and who benefitted from the Treaties from Maastricht to Lisbon, the Stability Pact, the Economic and Monetary Union, the Euro, the ECB and the so-called foreign and security policy of the European Union. The truth is, in an increasingly clearer way, that the interests the neoliberal, militarist and federalist European Union serves are those of big capital, namely big financial capital, of the great powers like Germany, of the defenders of militarism and NATO’s aggressive policy and not the interests of Europe’s workers and peoples, of cooperation and peace.

The measures taken by the European Union and the governments of several countries, including Portugal, in the name of a supposed “combat against the crisis” clearly reveal the falsehood of the discourses of “solidarity”, “cohesion” and “social Europe”, highlighting for what, in fact, serve the instruments written down in the treaties, in the common policies and in the Strategies like “Europe 2020”. In the name of the so-called “combat against the crisis” the peoples of Europe are increasingly victims of a policy of concentration and centralization of economic and political power which, feeding from the dependency and economic frailty of some countries like Portugal, strikes new and very serious blows against labour and social rights, the sovereignty and democracy itself and puts at stake the future of millions of people and the future of their countries.

3 – But, 25 years later, the PCP affirms with conviction that another Europe of the workers and the peoples is possible. With their struggle it will be possible to create a rupture with EU’s neoliberal, militarist and federalist course. A rupture based upon the respect for democracy and labour and social rights, to open the way for a true convergence and cooperation founded on social progress, support for national production, public investment, strengthening of public services, jobs with rights, the end of “free” circulation of capital, combat against finantialization and economic dependency.

Affirming its unwavering commitment to defend the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic - which set down many democratic advances, accomplishments and achievements of the April Revolution, namely concerning national independence and sovereignty – The PCP reiterates its rejection of an European integration characterized by submission and conditioning of Portugal’s development and renews its pledge to fight for an independent and sovereign Portugal, for a project of cooperation among sovereign and equal States, to promote the improvement of the living conditions of the workers and the people and the progress of the country, peace and international solidarity, in line with the project of democratic, patriotic and internationalist development set down in the April Constitution.

The present course of European integration is not an inevitability, as is not inevitable the brutal civilizational regression that the dominating classes try to impose on the peoples of Europe. The answer of the workers and the peoples of several European countries to the violent anti-social attack under way in the European Union – an important example of which was the demonstration in Lisbon last 29th. May – together with the changes in the international scene, namely in Latin America, prove that a different world and a different Europe are possible, based upon solidarity, mutual respect and reciprocity, respecting the sovereign right of the peoples to make their choice regarding economic, social and political organisation, in defense of peace and cooperation with all the peoples of the world.