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Maria João Rodrigues

Maria João Rodrigues GOIH (born 25 September 1955) is a Portuguese academic and politician who served as Member of the European Parliament. She was Vice-President of the Group of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) from 2014 until 2019, and since 2017 she is also President of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS), succeeding Italian politician Massimo d'Alema.

Her political career began as Minister of Employment of Portugal in the first government of Prime Minister António Guterres (1995–1997) and she was policy maker working in several posts in the European Institutions since 2000, most notably in the leading teams of EU Council Presidencies. She is an expert on EU political economy and has served as Special Advisor to a number of elected representatives at both Portuguese and EU level, in particular to António Guterres, the current Secretary General of United Nations, and to the former President of the Party of European Socialists (Poul Nyrup Rasmussen).

She is known as "the mother of the Lisbon Strategy" since this is one of her main outcomes. She also had a role in the development of: the EU2020 Strategy (the follow-up of the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs); the EU Declaration on Globalization adopted by the European Council (2007); strategic partnerships with USA, China, India, Russia, South Africa, and Brazil (2007-2012); the new phase of the Erasmus Programme (2008); the priorities for the European regional development policy (2005–07); the responses to the Euro-zone crisis (2008–13); the EP Strategic Resolutions on the European Commission Annual Work Programme (2015-2017); and the European Pillar of Social Rights (2017).

In 2014, Rodrigues was elected Member of the European Parliament, integrating the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) - the second most important EP Group, with 190 members coming from the 28 Member States, which elected her in 2014 as Vice-president. As S&D Vice-President, she is in charge of general coordination and interface with the other EU institutions and member of the Committees of Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) and Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON).

In academic terms, Rodrigues was professor of European economic policies in the Université libre de Bruxelles and in the University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE). She was also the chair of the European Commission Advisory Board for socio-economic sciences. She is author of more than one hundred publications.

One month before the European Elections, she was left off the PS election list as she was found guilty of psychological harassment of one of her assistants. Later on, on 14 July 2022, the Brussels Labour Court judgement dismissed most of the assistant's allegations. Provided by Wikipedia