Francisco Barros Castro

Francisco Barros Castro has been a member of the cabinet of Commissioner Elisa Ferreira, Commissioner for Cohesion and Reform at the European Commission, since December 2019. Before joining Commissioner Ferreira’s cabinet, he was Head of the Team for Romania and Bulgaria in the General Directorate “Economics and Finances” of the European Commission (2013-2019), financial adviser 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 of the University of Porto, Portugal (1990-2007), with which he is still associated today.

During his work at the Permanent Representation of Portugal to the EU, he was a deputy member of the Economic and Financial Committee, the Eurogroup Working Group and the Economic Policy Committee. He is Portugal’s representative in the Council’s working groups negotiating the package of six EU legislative proposals on economic governance and the multiannual financial framework for the period 2014-2020. He graduated in economics from the University of Porto (Portugal), has a master’s degree in in International Trade and Finance from the University of Lancaster (UK) and a PhD in Economics from the University of Leeds (UK).

He is the author, alone or in co-authorship, of about 20 scientific articles published in international journals or books.