20 Euros Entrance of Spain and Portugal in the European Union

Spain and Portugal formally acceded to the European Economic Community on January 1, 1986, after negotiations that stretched across nearly a decade and were complicated by French agricultural lobbying and concerns over Iberian labor competition. The 25th anniversary issue arrived in 2011 — the same year Spain's sovereign debt crisis was accelerating toward its peak, making the celebratory framing of European integration quietly awkward in Madrid.