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Portugal negotiated a Common Market trade agreement in 1972 & joined the EEC in 1986. Less known are the attempts to negotiate EEC association status in 1962 & in 1970. The decisive factor in determining an active role in European integration was to guarantee economic development &, thereby, social stability & the survival of the Estado Novo dictatorship. During the period studied, & indeed from 1945 onwards, no creditable development policy alternatives to active links with Europe were seriously put forward, & the colonies were not a rival policy option, but a subordinate policy option to Europe. The article also argues that the autocratic & colonialist Salazar & Caetano governments, as well as the democratically elected governments after 1974, adopted similar European policy options -- seeking future membership of the Common Market. It concludes that Portugal's post-war European integration policy was similar to other British-led OEEC members that initially rejected the political objectives of the Common Market but for economic reasons -- &, in the case of Portugal, after 1974, also for political reasons -- eventually became members. References. Adapted from the source document.