Elisa Maria da Costa Guimarães Ferreira, GCC (born 17 October 1955) is a Portuguese politician and economist who served as the

European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms The Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms is a portfolio within the European Commission. The current Commissioner is Raffaele Fitto. The portfolio is responsible for managing the regional policy of the European Union, such as the European Regi ...

in the

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Ursula von der Leyen Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (; ; born 8 October 1958) is a German politician, serving as president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the Cabinet of Germany, German federal government between 2005 and 2019, holding position ...

between 2019 and 2024. She previously served as vice-governor of the

Bank of Portugal The Banco de Portugal (, ) is the national central bank for Portugal within the Eurosystem. It was the Portuguese central bank from 1846 to 1998, issuing the escudo. Since 2014, it has also been Portugal's national competent authority within E ...

from 2016 until 2019. She was as

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(MEP) for the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

; part of the

Party of European Socialists The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a Social democracy, social democratic European political party. The PES comprises national-level political parties from all the European Economic Area, European economic area states (EEA) plus the Unit ...

between 2004 and 2016. In 2019, she was selected by Portugal to serve as a

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

er. Previously, she was in charge of the Ministries of Environment (1995-1999) and Public Works (1999-2001) during the governments of

António Guterres António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres (born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat who is serving as the ninth and current secretary-general of the United Nations since 2017. A member of the Socialist Party (Portugal), ...

Political career

Member of the Portuguese Government, 1995–2002

Ferreira served as Minister of Environment (1995–1999) and as Minister for Planning (1999–2001) in the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

Member of the European Parliament, 2004–2016

Ferreira was a

from the 2004 European election until her resignation in 2016. Throughout her time in parliament, she served as a member of the

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) is a committee of the European Parliament which is responsible for the regulation of financial services, the free movement of capital and payments, taxation and competition policies, oversight ...

. In this capacity, she drafted the committee's own-initiative report on closer coordination of economic policies, which calls for the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#International ...

(ECB) to be granted powers to monitor “financial stability in the euro-area” and to be involved “in EU-wide macroprudential supervision of systematically important financial institutions.” She was also in charge of the parliament's report on the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure in 2011 and led the parliament's work on the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) in 2013. From 2004 to 2014, Ferreira was a member of the parliament's delegation to the ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. In 2015, she joined the Special Committee on Tax Rulings and Other Measures Similar in Nature or Effect. In 2012, Ferreira was part of the

Socialists and Democrats The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) is the Political groups of the European Parliament, political group in the European Parliament of the Party of European Socialists (PES). The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and ...

(S&D) expert “alternative troika” sent to Greece to assess what measures can be taken to spur job growth. In addition to her committee assignments, Ferreira was a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Long Term Investment and Reindustrialisation. She also represented the Parliament at the

2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference __NOTOC__ The 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place at the Bali International Conference Centre, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, between December 3 and December 15, 2007 (though originally planned to end on 14 December). Representa ...

Bali Bali (English:; Balinese language, Balinese: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller o ...

and the

2008 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2008 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place at PIF Congress Centre, Poznań International Fair (PIF), in Poznań, Poland, between December 1 and December 12, 2008. Representatives from over 180 countries attended along with obse ...

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

Banco de Portugal, 2016–2019

In June 2016, Elisa Ferreira resigned from the European Parliament after she was nominated by the Portuguese Government to join the board of directors of the Bank of Portugal. She was replaced by Manuel dos Santos.

European Commissioner, 2019–2024

On 27 August 2019 Prime-Minister

António Costa António Luís Santos da Costa (; born 17 July 1961) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician who has served as President of the European Council since 2024. He previously served as the 118th prime minister of Portugal from 2015 to 2024 and th ...

announced that Ferreira had been proposed as the Portuguese

commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to incl ...

in Ursula von der Leyen's European Commission, to take office on 1 November 2019, taking the portfolio of Cohesion and Reforms. She became the first Portuguese woman to be put forward as commissioner.

Life after politics

After leaving the European Commission, Ferreira resumed her former occupation as university teacher at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto.

Electoral history

Porto City Council election, 2009

, - ! colspan="2" , Party ! Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Seats ! align="center" style="width: 50px", +/− , - , style="background:;", , align="left", PSD/CDS–PP , align=left , Rui Rio , , 62,507 , , 47.5 , , 7 , , ±0 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", PS , align=left , Elisa Ferreira , , 45,682 , , 34.7 , , 5 , , ±0 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", CDU , align=left , Rui Sá , , 12,904 , , 9.8 , , 1 , , ±0 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", BE , align=left , João Teixeira Lopes , , 6,552 , , 4.9 , , 0 , , ±0 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", PCTP/MRPP , align=left , João Valente Pinto , , 915 , , 0.7 , , 0 , , ±0 , - , colspan="3" align="left", Blank/Invalid ballots , 3,089 , , 2.4 , , – , , – , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan="3" align="left", Turnout , 131,649 , , 56.75 , , 13 , , ±0 , - , colspan="7" align=left, Source: Autárquicas 2009

Other activities

* Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE), Member of the Administrative Board (1989–1992) * Associação Industrial Portuense, Executive Vice-President (1992–1994) * Comissão de Coordenação da Região Norte, Vice-President (1988–1992)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferreira, Elisa 1955 births Living people MEPs for Portugal 2004–2009 MEPs for Portugal 2009–2014 MEPs for Portugal 2014–2019 21st-century women MEPs for Portugal Politicians from Porto Socialist Party (Portugal) MEPs University of Porto alumni Portuguese European commissioners Women European commissioners European commissioners (2019–2024)