Maria Joao RODRIGUES

Presentation

Maria Joao RODRIGUES has been involved in the development of the Lisbon Agenda since the beginning. The purpose of this agenda is to prepare Europe for globalization, by creating a more competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy capable of sustainable growth with more and better jobs, social cohesion and respect for environment. In 2000, as advisor to the Prime Minister António Guterres, she was in charge of preparing the Lisbon European Council. In 2001 and 2002, she supported the European institutions in turning the Lisbon strategy into an operational agenda of common objectives and measures in various policies such as research, innovation, education, employment and social inclusion.

In 2003, she worked with the Presidium of the European Convention in order to connect the new Constitutional Treaty to the Lisbon Agenda. In 2004, she started an international cooperation, notably with China and Brazil, regarding the exchange of experience in designing a development agenda. In 2005, as advisor to the Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, she was engaged in the mid-term review of the Lisbon agenda which led to the adoption of the integrated guidelines for growth and jobs and the national reform programmes prepared by the Member States. In the meantime, she has made some hundred conferences on these themes across Europe and abroad.

Maria Joao RODRIGUES is currently special advisor to the European Commission for the Lisbon Agenda. She is also member of the board of the European Policy Centre Council, Brussels, and of "Notre Europe", Paris, created by Jacques Delors. In the political area, she was also minister of employment in Portugal.

In the academic area, Maria Joao RODRIGUES is professor of economics in the Institute of European Studies, Free University of Brussels and ISCTE, Higher Institute of Social Sciences and Business Studies, Lisbon. She was also President of the European Commission's Advisory Group for Social Sciences, composed by European academic personalities (6th Framework Programme of R&D, 2002-06). She has several degrees in sociology and economics and her PhD in Economics by the University of Paris I.

Main Publications

• The New Knowledge Economy in Europe - A Strategy for International Competitiveness and Social Cohesion (coord.) with the collaboration of Robert Boyer, Manuel Castells, Gøsta Esping-Andersen, Robert Lindley, Bengt-Åke Lundvall, Luc Soete, Mario Telò and Mark Tomlinson, London, Edward Elgar, 2002
• European Policies for a Knowledge Economy, London, Edward Elgar, 2003. Portuguese Translation: A Agenda Económica e Social da União Europeia - A Estratégia de Lisboa, Lisbon, D. Quixote Publications, 2004
• The Employment System in Portugal - Crisis and Changes, Several editions: 1988, 1992, Lisbon, Dom Quixote Publications (Gulbenkian Science Award, 1986)
• Competitiveness and Human Resources - Portugal dilemmas facing Europe, Several Editions: 1991, 1994, 1998, Lisbon, Dom Quixote Publications (Highly mentioned in the Boa Esperança Science and Technology Award)
• For the Innovation Policy in Portugal (coord.) with the collaboration of Manuel Mira Godinho and Arminda Neves, Lisbon, D. Quixote Publications, 2003