Paulo Rangel

Paulo Rangel was born in Vila Nova de Gaia on 18 February 1968.

A law graduate from the Católica Portuguesa  University Law School, he is a lawyer by occupation.

He teaches at the Católica  Porto University Law School, where he lectured on Administrative Law and Constitutional Law, and where he heads the Political Science chair. Since 2011 he has taught on the University of Porto Business School Executive MBA.

He has been deputy leader of the Social Democrats since 3 July 2022. 

He was a member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2024, elected as head of the list in the European elections in 2009, 2014, and 2019. 

In the European Parliament he sat on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the Committee on Constitutional Affairs. During his last term in office, he was on the Delegation to the EU-Montenegro Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee, as well as on the Delegation for the Relations with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. He drafted the report on the European Parliament’s right of legislative initiative, approved in June 2022. 

In 2015, he was elected Vice-President of the European People’s Party. 

He was elected member of Parliament in 2005 and became chair of the PSD Parliamentary group in June 2008.

He was Deputy Minister of Justice from July 2004 to March 2005.