Vasco Alves
Cordeiro

Vasco Alves Cordeiro was elected President of the European Committee of the Regions in June 2022.

Born in the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal and an EU outermost region, on 28 March 1973, Vasco Alves Cordeiro, lawyer, married and father of two children, is a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores.

A graduate in law from the University of Coimbra and with a postgraduate degree in regional law from the University of Lisbon and University of the Azores, Vasco Alves Cordeiro began his professional career as a lawyer in the Azores in 1995 where he practiced until 2003.

In 1996, he was elected for the first time as a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores for the Socialist Party, and led the socialist group in the regional parliament between 2000 and 2003.

Since then, he has held several positions in the regional executive, including Regional Secretary of Economy (2008-2012), Regional Secretary of the Presidency (2004-2008), responsible for European and External Affairs, and Regional Secretary for Agriculture and Fisheries (2003-2004).

In 2012, he was elected President of the Regional Government of the Azores for the first time, a position for which he was re-elected in 2016, and, in that capacity, represented the region at European and international level as a member of the European Committee of the Regions, and organisations such as the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions of Europe, the Conference of Presidents of the EU Outermost Regions, the Assembly of the Regions of Europe, R20 – Regions of Climate Action, and in the framework of relations with countries that host Azorean communities, including the USA, Canada and Brazil. From 2014 to 2020, he was President of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe.

Cordeiro has been the leader of the Socialist Party of the Azores since January 2013. A strong supporter of the urgent need to tackle the issue of citizens' support for the European project, Vasco Alves Cordeiro has also dedicated himself to strengthening social, economic and territorial cohesion in the European Union, advocating for European policies that genuinely correspond to the interests and ambitions of citizens and strengthen the role of regions as bastions of the Union's internal democracy and its economic and social progress.

Member of the European Committee of the Regions since 2013 and, previously, from 2004 to 2008 as an alternate member, Cordeiro was the First Vice-President of the institution from February 2020 to June 2022.