1 January 2006 was the twentieth anniversary of the accession of Portugal and Spain to the European Communities.

To mark those two decades of integration, the European Parliament's Office in Portugal and the Representation of the European Commission in Portugal organised, in collaboration with other bodies, a series of activities around the debate on the future of Europe.

Because Portugal would be holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union during the second half of 2007, it was decided to extend some of the activities beyond 2006, the year of the 20th anniversary.

In particular, 2007 will see the display of a photographic exhibition, «Portugal and Spain: 20 years of European Integration», which has already toured a number of Portuguese and Spanish towns and cities since 2006.
In around 200 photographs, cartoons and newspaper front pages, the exhibition documents the outcome of the first 20 years of Portugal and Spain's membership of the European Union.



The exhibition was inaugurated on 23 March 2006, in Brussels, in the presence of Josep Borrell, President of the European Parliament, José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission  and the Prime Ministers of Portugal, José Sócrates, and Spain José Luís Zapatero. Some 1500 people attended the ceremony, including several dozen young people from the two countries of the Iberian peninsula, all born in 1986.

The exhibition was held at the initiative of the Offices of the European Parliament and the Representations of the European Commission in Portugal and Spain, with support from the press agencies Lusa and EFE, and the participation of the Lisbon and Madrid delegations of the Association of European Journalists, under the patronage of the Ministries of foreign affairs of the two countries.

In Portugal the exhibition will continue to tour until the end of December 2007. 

Commemoration of 20 years of accession