Lorenzo Natali and the first “tangible” steps towards the EEC Iberian Enlargement

Résumé

This article claims that the EEC turned the challenge of Iberian enlargement into an opportunity to relaunch the European project. The text focuses on illuminating the under researched role of the European Commission during the presidency of the British Roy Jenkins (1977-1981). The common thread of the story is made up of the analysis of the work carried out by the commissioner for the Enlargement, the Italian Lorenzo Natali. Far from understanding the accession of Spain and Portugal as a problem for the economic cohesion of the EEC, as some member states raised at the time, Natali saw in it a stimulus to overcome the break following the first enlargement. The text shows how, following Natali’s strategy, the Commission linked the progress of the Iberian agenda to the resolution of the great challenges of the community agenda: the establishment of a European monetary system, the completion of the Single Market, the reinforcement of the international role of the EEC and above all a political and institutional reform able to guarantee the Community to work with twelve member-states.