Maria João Rodrigues

Maria João Rodrigues MEP
Vice-President of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats Acting
Incumbent
Assumed office June 2014
Preceded by	Udo Bullmann (Acting)
Succeeded by	Udo Bullmann
Personal details
Born	(1955-09-25) 25 September 1955 Lisbon, Portugal
Political party	Socialist Party
Alma mater	University Institute of Lisbon Pantheon-Sorbonne University
Website	Official website

Maria João Rodrigues (born 1955) is a Portuguese academic specialised in EU affairs and a European politician. She was Minister for Qualifications and Employment of Portugal in the first government of Prime Minister António Guterres (1995–1997).

Known as the "mother of the Lisbon Strategy", she has been an expert on EU political economy and has notably served as special adviser to a number of elected representatives at both Portuguese and EU level (in particular to former Prime Minister Guterres, to several European Commissioners and to the former President of the Party of European Socialists Poul Nyrup Rasmussen). In 2014, she was elected member of the European Parliament, integrating the Socialists and Democrats political group, which elected her as Vice-president for economic and social affairs.

In 2017, she was elected by forty foundations European-wide to become the President of FEPS, ranked as the 6th most important political foundation in the world.

Education and awards

Maria João Rodrigues holds three master's degrees and a PhD in economics from the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne as well as a Degree in Sociology from the University Institute of Lisbon.^[1]

She was decorated notably with:

• Nominated for the Gaetan Pirou Award (Economic Science Award given by French universities at national level), 1986.
• Gulbenkian Science and Technology National Award in Portugal, 1986 for her PhD thesis on the Employment System
• Highly mentioned in the Boa Esperança Science and Technology Award in Portugal, 1992.
• Ordre de la Couronne de Chêne au grade de Commandeur of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg for her contribution to the promotion of social Europe, 2000.
• Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique, Grand Official of the Portuguese Republic for her academic and public service functions and for her European contribution, 2003.
• Légion d’Honneur – Chevalier of the French Republic for her role in the European integration and the EU Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs, 2005. Promotion to the degree of Officier for her role in the EU Presidency and the Lisbon Treaty, 2008.

Political career

Professor of Economics at the University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL) since 1987,^[2] Maria João Rodrigues started her career in public affairs in 1993 as a consultant in the Ministry of Employment and Social Security, then headed by José Falcão e Cunha in the conservative government of Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva.^[1] Following the victory of the Socialist Party in the 1995 general elections, she was appointed Minister for Qualifications and Employment by Prime Minister António Guterres on 28 October 1995.^[3] She attained a strategic agreement with social partners to prepare Portugal membership to the Eurozone(1997), completed a major reform in the management of the European Social Fund and held this office until 25 November 1997, when she was reaffirmed. After she stepped down, the ministry was abolished and the constituent parts were reallocated to other ministries. In the current government, the responsibilities of the former Minister for Qualifications and Employment have been reallocated to the Secretary of State for Employment and Vocational Training within the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity.

Maria João Rodrigues was elected for the European parliament in the 2014 European Parliament election. In 2014-06-25 she was elected vice-president of the second most important parliamentary group,Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group, along with other nine MEPs.^[4]

In 2016 she moved from the portofolio of economic and social affairs to the one of Coordination of the parliamentary work and inter-institutional negotiations on the EU agenda.

After the 2014 European Parliament election, Maria João Rodrigues was mentioned to be appointed as a European Commissioner. In spite of a public push for the political appointment, Carlos Moedas was appointed instead.^[5]

In December 2015 she was one of the candidates for the Portuguese Council of State (an advisory council to the President of the Republic) in the list put forward by the left-wing parties in the Portuguese parliament, as substitute member.^[6][7]

The Lisbon Strategy

Maria João Rodrigues remained close to Prime Minister Guterres, and was appointed his special adviser and Head of the Prime Minister's Forward Studies Unit in 1998. In this capacity, she played a dramatic role during the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union, in the first semester of 2000. The Portuguese Presidency notably succeeded in securing a compromise on the so-called Lisbon Strategy, a comprehensive plan that was aimed at boosting growth, competitiveness and employment level in the EU. The strategy was adopted at an extraordinary European Council meeting in Lisbon in March 2000, a meeting in which Maria João Rodrigues acted as a sherpa for the Prime Minister.^[8] She notably contributed to build a compromise between the delegations of the British and French governments, by resorting to the open method of coordination. Maria João Rodrigues continued to monitor closely the developments of the Lisbon Strategy, in particular as Special Advisor to the Luxembourg Presidency of the European Union for the Mid-term Review of the Lisbon Strategy (2005) and special advisor to the European Commission and Jean-Claude Juncker on the Lisbon strategy.

Looking back on this experience in 2010, Maria João Rodrigues wrote "Even if there were clear failures, the implementation of the Lisbon strategy should not be considered a failure.".^[9] The Lisbon strategy is largely considered to have failures but also some achievements. In 2007, the EU average Growth Rate was 2.7% and 16 million jobs have been created.Most of all, it changed the governance of the European Union with higher coordination of economic and social policies.

In 2007, she was appointed by Prime Minister José Socrates as special adviser for the European Union Presidency dealing with the Lisbon Treaty, the Lisbon strategy and EU Summits with international partners China, India, Brazil, Russia and Africa. This mission, which achieved the negotiation of the Lisbon Treaty, came to end on 1 January 2008, when the rotating presidency of the European Union was handed to Slovenia. Maria João Rodrigues has also started a process of "Dialogues for Sustainable Development" with these international partners, sponsored by Gulbenkian Foundation.

Post-Lisbon Strategy career

The Lisbon Strategy was succeeded by another EU plan for "smart, sustainable and inclusive economic growth" in 2010: the Europe 2020 strategy. Although not acting in any official capacity anymore, Maria João Rodrigues previous experiences with the Lisbon strategy meant that her viewpoint on the Europe 2020 was highly valued all across the political spectrum and in many European capitals.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Until 2014, Maria João Rodrigues was also a Professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles and the University of Lisbon. She is also active in several think tank and research institutions ^[14][15], notably as member of the Governing Board of the European Policy Center and of Jacques Delors Institute.^[16] She was until 2006 the chair of the advisory Group to the European Commission for Social Sciences and Humanities.^[17]

In September 2011, she was defeated in her bid to become Deputy Secretary-General of the OECD by the former Belgium Prime Minister (at the time still acting Prime Minister) Yves Leterme. Despite being supported by "two Portuguese governments", both centre-left and centre-right, Maria João Rodrigues was compelled to withdraw her candidacy when Leterme voiced his interest for the position. A Portuguese newspaper wrote that "preference was given to political experience".^[18] Maria João Rodrigues remained a member of the OECD's Innovation Strategy Expert advisory group.^[19]

In June 2017, she was elected as President of FEPS,Foundation of European Progressive Studies, by its forty member foundations located across Europe.

Recent research interest

Maria João Rodrigues has also been developing a policy response^[20] to the Eurozone crisis, notably with respect to the European Financial Stability Facility and the economic governance of the European Union.

In October 2010, she published in European current affairs online newspaper EurActiv a "short theatre piece" summing up her thoughts on the issue of European Economic Governance, and several other policy papers, reports and books followed.^[21]

In December 2011, she has been arguing for the use of a "big bazooka" to address the eurozone crisis, in the form of a large scale government debt purchase by the European Central Bank.^[22]

In 2012, she took a new role in the coordination of the Europe wide project "New Pact for Europe",^[23] sponsored by the most relevant European Foundations.

In 2015, she led the S&D Group in the European Parliament to adopt detailed positions on the Greek Crisis^[24] and on the reform of the Economic and Monetary Union.^[25] She was then appointed to chair this debate with the Social Democratic leaders in Europe. In 2017, she obtained a large majority of five political groups in the European Parliament to back her report on " The European Pillar of Social Rights" and was appointed to the final negotiation began i was proclaimed in the Gothenburg Summit on 17th November 2017.

References

External links

• Official website (in English) (in Portuguese)
• Personal profile of Maria João Rodrigues in the European Parliament's database of members