Quick Facts
Biography
Elisa Maria da Costa Guimarães Ferreira, GCC (born October 17, 1955 in Porto) is a Portuguese politician who served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Socialist Party; part of the Party of European Socialists between 2004 and 2016.
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 of Prime Minister António Guterres of Portugal.
Member of the European Parliament, 2004–2016
Ferreira was a Member of the European Parliament from the 2004 European elections until her resignation in 2016. Throughout her time in parliament, she served as a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. In this capacity, she drafted the committee’s own-initiative report on closer coordination of economic policies, which calls for the European Central Bank (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 (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.
Banco de Portugal, 2016–present
In June 2016, Ferreira resigned from the European Parliament when she was nominated by the Government of Portugal to join the Board of Directors of the Banco de Portugal. She was replaced by Manuel António dos Santos.
Other activities
- National Statistical Institute (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)