José Manuel Fernandes

José Manuel Fernandes was born on 26 July 1967 in Vila Verde. He is married and has two children.

He has a degree in Systems Engineering and IT from Minho University. 

He was Mayor of Vila Verde from 1997 to 2009. 

From 2009 to 2024 he was a Member of European Parliament, where he coordinated the People’s Party in the Budget Committee (2014-2024).

He was member of the Agriculture Committee and rapporteur for the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism.  

He chaired the EU-Brazil parliamentary delegation and was a member of the negotiation team in the Multiannual Financial Framework for 2021/2027, and the Recovery and Resilience Facility. He has been on the team that negotiates EU annual budgets since 2009 and was the main rapporteur for the 2015 budget.

He was permanent co-rapporteur in the report on the initiative on new equity for the EU budget and negotiator in programmes such as the Junker Plan, InvestEU, or STEP.