Before becoming a European Commissioner in 2019 with the portfolio of Cohesion and Reforms, she was a member of the Board of Directors of Banco de Portugal between 2016 and 2019, having taken the post of Vice-Governor in 2017. Between 2004 and 2016 she was a deputy to the European Parliament, having previously assumed the positions of Vice-President of the Northern Regional Coordination Commission, member of the administration of the National Statistics Institute and Executive Director of the Porto Industrial Association. She was Minister for the Environment and Minister for Planning between 1995 and 1999 and 1999 and 2002, respectively. Between 2002 and 2004 she was a member of the national parliament. She was a professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto, where she graduated. He holds a master's and doctorate in Economics from the University of Reading (United Kingdom).