Editing European Free Trade Association (section)

==Portugal Fund==
The Portugal Fund came into operation in February 1977 when Portugal was still a member of EFTA.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.efta.int/sites/default/files/publications/annual-report/efta-annual-report-1976-1977-web.pdf | title = 1976-1977 Seventeenth Annual Report of the European Free Trade Association | page=21 | publisher= efta.int | date = September 1977 | access-date= 14 April 2019}}</ref> It was to provide funding for the development of Portugal after the [[Carnation Revolution]] and the consequential restoration of democracy and the [[decolonization]] of the country's overseas possessions. This followed a period of economic sanctions by most of the international community, which left Portugal economically underdeveloped compared to the rest of the [[western Europe]]. When Portugal left EFTA in 1985 in order to join the EEC, the remaining EFTA members decided to continue the Portugal Fund so that Portugal would continue to benefit from it. The Fund originally took the form of a low-interest loan from the EFTA member states to the value of US$100 million. Repayment was originally to commence in 1988, however, EFTA then decided to postpone the start of repayments until 1998. The Portugal Fund was dissolved in January 2002.<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1015035/2041337/Liquidation+of+the+EFTA+IDF.pdf/654b5c00-c803-4c12-b689-6a06af78363c|access-date=21 April 2023|website=europa.eu|title=New decision of Eurostat on deficit and debt. Liquidation of the EFTA Industrial Development Fund for Portugal|date=21 August 2003}}</ref>