EPP elections on
October 22 - Madrid
Candidature of Mr. Paulo
Rangel to the position of
Vice-President of the EPP
Dear congressman of the EPP:
On 22nd of October 2015, at the next EPP Congress in Madrid, we will elect the new presidency. On this
occasion, I, as President of Portugal’s PSD and as Prime Minister of Portugal, should like to put forward the
candidacy of Paulo Rangel for the position of Vice-President of the EPP.
Paulo Rangel is a Member of the European Parliament since 2009 and has, from the very start of his tenure,
held the position of Vice-Chair of the Parliamentary Group of the EPP..
Paulo Rangel has been responsible over a number of years (2009-2014) for the relations with national parliaments, having a thorough knowledge of the national affairs respective to all of our member parties.
As such, he is in optimal conditions to ensure the connection between the Group and the Party
Nowadays, and since 2014, he chairs the EIN, the think-tank of the EPP Group, which conducts research and
advances ideas on relevant matters, effectively steering our policy agenda. He is also spearheading the Group’s
works on the topic «Future of the EU».
His commitment to the European ideal is widely known in the European Parliament and in the EPP, advocating
further integration towards a political union and the full implementation of a social market economy within
the European Union.
Being the only Iberian candidate, at a time when the Portuguese people have shown great maturity handing an
exemplary victory to our party, and doing so after four years of fiscal consolidation policies, I believe that Paulo
Rangel’s election may, at last, chalk our EPP policies and programs as an undoubted success.
Yours truly,
Pedro Passos Coelho
(President of the PSD Portugal
Prime-Minister of Portugal)
MEP, PAULO RANGEL
Member of the European Parliament and Vice Chairmen of the EPP Group since 2009. Vice Chairman of the
EPP Group responsible for the European Ideas Network, a centre-right pan-European think-tank designed to
promote new thinking on the key challenges facing the countries of the European Union with an active membership of around 3000 policy-makers and opinion-shapers across the European Union.
Chairman of the EU Brazil Parliamentary Delegation in the European Parliament. and Vice Chairman of The
Constitutional Affairs Committee in the European Parliament since 2014.
Head of the PSD Portuguese delegation and Administrator of the Robert Schuman Foundation since 2009.
Chairman of the PSD parliamentary group in 2008-2009, and member of the Portuguese Parliament (Assembly of the Republic) during the 10th legislature.
Deputy Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice under the 16th constitutional government.
Graduate of the Faculty of Law, Portuguese Catholic University of Porto.
Member of the Cuatrecasas Gonçalves Pereira Legal Partnership.
Speciality: Public Law. Lecturer in the Law Faculty of the Portuguese Catholic University.
In charge of Political Sciences and of Theory of the Constitution (Verfassunglehre). Lecturer of the MBA in the
Porto Business School (University of Oporto).
Member of the board of directors of the Porto Trade Association, chairmen of the General Assembly of RAR
Group and regular commentator in various branches of the media («Conselho Superior» RDP Antena 1 on
Mondays, «Palavra e Poder» in newspaper Público on Tuesdays, «Prova dos Nove» in TVI24 on Thursdays).
Publications: many speeches and lectures, scholarly articles and books on legal, political and constitutional
issues.
The main books are: Jesus e a Política (Jesus and Politics), Porto, 2015; Uma democracia sustentável (A sustainable democracy), Coimbra, 2010; O Estado do Estado (The state of the State), Lisboa, 2009; Repensar o
Poder Judical (Rethinking Judicial Power), Porto, 2001. Research work: with the DAAD in Frankfurt, with the
European Institute in Florence, the University of Osnabrück, the University of Upsala, the University of Lausanne, the University of Bologna, the University of Genoa and the University of Freiburg. Awarded the Grosse
Verdienstkreuz mit Stern by the Federal Republic of German (2009); the Council of Europe’s René Cassin Prize
(1989); the D. António Ferreira Gomes Prize (1986).