José Manuel Ferreira Fernandes (born 26 July 1967) is a Portuguese 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 Form ...

. He has been Minister of Agriculture since 2024 and Minister of the Sea since 2025, 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 ...

led by

Luís Montenegro Luís Filipe Montenegro Cardoso de Morais Esteves (; born 16 February 1973) is a Portuguese politician and lawyer serving as the prime minister of Portugal since April 2024. He is the president of the Social Democratic Party (Portugal), Social De ...

. Previously, Fernandes was a

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 ...

between

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

and 2024. Earlier in his career, he was Mayor of

Vila Verde Vila Verde () is a municipality in the district of Braga in Portugal. The population in 2021 was 46,446,

northern Portugal The North Region ( ) or Northern Portugal is the most populous region in Portugal, ahead of Lisbon, and the third most extensive by area. The region has 3,576,205 inhabitants according to the 2017 census, and its area is with a density of 173 inha ...

(1997–2009).

Political career

Early beginnings

Fernandes served as president of JSD - Social Democratic Youth of

Vila Verde Vila Verde () is a municipality in the district of Braga in Portugal. The population in 2021 was 46,446,

(1992-1993) and as leader of the

Braga district The district of Braga ( ) is a district in the northwest of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Braga, and it is bordered by the district of Viana do Castelo in the north, Vila Real in the east, Galicia (a Spanish autonomous commu ...

political committee of JSD (1994-1996).

Member of the European Parliament, 2009–2024

In parliament, Fernandes was a member of the

Committee on Budgets The Committee on Budgets (BUDG) is a committee of the European Parliament. It has 41 members plus 39 substitute members. The committee's current chair is Jean Arthuis, who has held this position since 7 July 2014.rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...

on the 2012 and 2016 annual budgets as well as the European Fund for Strategic Investments. In 2020, he served as the Parliament's co-rapporteur (alongside

Valérie Hayer Valérie Hayer (; born 6 April 1986) is a French jurist and politician who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2019 in the Renew Europe. Since 2024, she has been leading the Renew Europe group in parliament. She ...

) on a successful motion to assign new tax revenues to the

budget of the European Union The budget of the European Union ( The Union’s annual budget) is used to finance EU funding programmes (such as the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund, Horizon Europe, or Erasmus+) and other expenditure at the European ...

to repay its joint borrowing of 750 billion euros ($888 billion) for economic recovery after the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In addition to his committee assignments, Fernandes was part of the parliament's delegations to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, for relations with

Mercosur The Southern Common Market (commonly known by abbreviation ''Mercosur'' in Spanish and ''Mercosul'' in Portuguese) is a South American trade bloc established by the Treaty of Asunción in 1991 and Protocol of Ouro Preto in 1994. Its full me ...

and to the

Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly The Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat) is a trans-national body of 150 Parliamentarians from Europe and Latin America. It was established in 2006 to bolster EU-Latin American relations. It was described by Benita Ferrero-Waldner ...

. He had previously been a member of the delegations to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

(2009–2014), to the Parliamentary Assembly of the

Union for the Mediterranean The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM; , ''Al-Ittiḥād min ajl al-Mutawasseṭ'') is an intergovernmental organization of 43 member states from Europe and the Mediterranean Basin: the 27 Member state of the European Union, EU member states (i ...

(2014–2019) and for relations with the Maghreb countries and the

Arab Maghreb Union The Arab Maghreb Union ( '; AMU/UMA) is a political union and economic union trade agreement aiming for economic and future political unity among Arab countries that are located primarily in the Maghreb in North Africa. Its members are the natio ...

(2014–2019). He was also a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal Areas, the European Parliament Intergroup on Disability and the

MEPs Against Cancer MEPs Against Cancer is a group of 23 Members of the European Parliament who aim to "promote action on cancer as an EU priority and harness European health policy to that end" and to encourage every country to develop a national plan for combatin ...

group. Following the

2019 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2019. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems has a calendar of upcoming elections around the world, and the National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections in cou ...

, Fernandes was part of a cross-party working group in charge of drafting the European Parliament's five-year work program on economic and fiscal policies as well as trade.

Recognition

In 2020, Fernandes was voted the most influential Portuguese MEP of 2020.Sofia Diogo Mateus (11 January 2021)
Portuguese people to know in the Brussels Bubble
''

Politico Europe ''Politico Europe'' (stylized as ''POLITICO Europe'') is the European edition of the American news organization '' Politico'' reporting on political affairs of the European Union. Its headquarters are located in Brussels with additional offices in ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandes, José Manuel Living people MEPs for Portugal 2019–2024 Social Democratic Party (Portugal) MEPs Social Democratic Party (Portugal) politicians Year of birth missing (living people)