Paulo Artur dos Santos Castro de Campos Rangel (born 18 February 1968 in

Vila Nova de Gaia Vila Nova de Gaia (; cel-x-proto, Cale), or simply Gaia, is a city and a municipality in Porto District in Norte Region, Portugal. It is located south of the city of Porto on the other side of the Douro River. The city proper had a population of ...

) is a Portuguese jurist and politician of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(PSD) who has been serving as a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

since 2009. He also serves as vice-president of the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Ch ...

under the leadership of its president

Manfred Weber Manfred Weber (born 14 July 1972) is a German politician who has served as President of the European People's Party (EPP) since 2022 and as Leader of the EPP Group in the European Parliament since 2014. He has been a Member of the European Parl ...

Member of the European Parliament, 2009–present

Rangel has been a

(MEP) since the 2009 European elections. Upon entering the parliament, he was chosen as one of the vice-presidents of the

European People's Party Group The European People's Party Group (EPP Group) is a centre-right political group of the European Parliament consisting of Member of the European Parliament, deputies (MEPs) from the member parties of the European People's Party (EPP). Sometimes ...

. Rangel has since been serving on the

Committee on Constitutional Affairs The Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) is a committee of the European Parliament dealing with institutional matters such as the Treaties of the European Union and the Parliament's rules of procedure. It is currently chaired by Antonio Tajan ...

. In that capacity, he drafted the parliament’s 2010 report on the framework agreement between the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

and the Parliament, which demanded that MEPs should be allowed to participate in international negotiations that lead to accords that need parliamentary backing. In 2014, he became the committee’s vice-chairman. In addition, he was elected chairman of the parliament’s delegation for relations with

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. During his time in parliament, Rangel launched a bid for the leadership of the PSD in 2010 but ultimately came second and lost against

Pedro Passos Coelho Pedro Manuel Mamede Passos Coelho (; born 24 July 1964) is a Portuguese politician and university guest lecturer who was the 118th prime minister of Portugal, in office from 2011 to 2015. He was the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) b ...

. Ahead of the

2014 European elections Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unrel ...

, the PSD named Rangel at the top of their list. In the 2019 European elections, he served as his party’s lead candidate again. He is a member of the Working Group on the

Conference on the Future of Europe The Conference on the Future of Europe was a proposal of the European Commission and the European Parliament, announced at the end of 2019, with the aim of looking at the medium to long term future of the EU and what reforms should be made to i ...

. Within the

, Rangel has been chairing the Working Group on EPP Membership since 2016. In this capacity, he notably took the decision to suspend the

Fidesz Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance (; hu, Fidesz – Magyar Polgári Szövetség) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Hungary, led by Viktor Orbán. It was formed in 1988 under the name of Alliance of Young ...

party in 2020. In 2021, he was also appointed to the

EPP group The European People's Party Group (EPP Group) is a centre-right political group of the European Parliament consisting of deputies (MEPs) from the member parties of the European People's Party (EPP). Sometimes it also includes independent MEPs ...

's task force for proposing changes to its rules of procedure to allow for “the possibility of the collective termination of membership of a group of Members rather than just individual membership”, alongside Esteban González Pons, Jan Olbrycht, Esther de Lange and

Othmar Karas Othmar Karas (born 24 December 1957) is an Austrian politician who has been serving as the First Vice-President of the European Parliament since January 2022, having been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 1999. He is a member of the ...

Other activities

RAR Group Grupo RAR, one of Portugal’s leading business groups, comprises a portfolio of diversified businesses in the areas of packaging, food, real estate and services. With a turnover in 2019, of 781 million euros and 4,228 employees, RAR Group is prese ...

, Chairman of the Board of the Shareholders’ General Meeting * Associação Comercial do Porto (ACP), Member of the Board

Personal life

In 2021, Paulo Rangel publicly

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

about his homosexuality.Rangel fala publicamente sobre a sua homossexualidade: "Não é problema nenhum, é uma coisa que nunca escondi" (

Observador ''Observador'' is a Portuguese online newspaper An online newspaper (or electronic news or electronic news publication) is the online version of a newspaper, either as a stand-alone publication or as the online version of a printed periodical. ...

) https://observador.pt/2021/09/04/rangel-fala-publicamente-sobre-homossexualidade-nao-e-problema-nenhum-e-uma-coisa-que-nunca-escondi/

References

External links

* 1968 births Living people People from Vila Nova de Gaia MEPs for Portugal 2009–2014 MEPs for Portugal 2014–2019 Social Democratic Party (Portugal) MEPs Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany MEPs for Portugal 2019–2024 Portuguese LGBT politicians Gay politicians LGBT legislators LGBT conservatism {{Portugal-MEP-stub