Francisco Barros Castro

Francisco Barros Castro has been a member of the cabinet of Commissioner Elisa Ferreira, Commissioner responsible for Cohesion and Reforms at the European Commission, since December 2019. Before joining Commissioner Ferreira’s office, he was team leader for Romania and Bulgaria at the European Commission’s DG Economy and Finance (2013-2019), Financial Advisor and head of the ECOFIN department at the Permanent Representation of Portugal to the EU (2007). -2013) and professor and researcher at the Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, Portugal (1990-2007), to which he is still connected. While in Portugal’s Permanent Representation to the EU, he was an alternate member of the Economic and Financial Committee, the Eurogroup Working Group and the Economic Policy Committee. He was Portugal’s representative in the Council working groups that negotiated the package of six EU legislative proposals on economic governance and the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020. He holds a degree in Economics from the University of Porto (Portugal), a Master’s in International Trade and Finance from the University of Lancaster (United Kingdom) and a PhD in Economics from the University of Leeds (United Kingdom). He is the author, individually or jointly, of around 20 scientific articles published in international journals or books.