A lawyer by profession since 1982, António Vitorino has been an associate at the law firm Cuatrecasas, Gonçalves Pereira & Associados since 2005.

A Member of Parliament in his native Portugal from 1980 to 2006, he was Minister for Parliamentary Affairs in the government of Mario Soares (1983-1985), then Deputy Secretary of Administration and Justice for the government of Macau (1986-1987) and a member of a liaison group created by Portugal and China on issues dealing with Macau from 1988 to 1990. He was a judge on Portugal’s Constitutional Court from 1989 to 1994.
 
He was elected a Member of European Parliament in 1994, then Chair of the Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs of the European Parliament. In 1995, he became Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister of Portugal.

In 1999 António Vitorino was appointed European Commissioner for Justice and Internal Affairs, a post he occupied until 2004. As a representative of the European Commission he took part in the convention which drew up the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Convention on the Future of Europe. In 2004 he also participated in the Intergovernmental Conference which adopted the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.
 
Since 2005 he has been president of the general assembly of Banco Santander Totta and holds non-executive positions at several European companies including Siemens Portugal.

He chairs the Board of Directors of the Res Publica Foundation and is a former Chairman of the Governing Board of the European Policy Centre (2005-2009). He is a member of the Transatlantic Council on Migrations, the European Group of the Trilateral Commission and co-Chair of the Foreign Policy Scorecard published by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

From 2005 to 2009, he provided weekly commentary on political news on As Notas Soltas de António Vitorino, a programme on Radio and Television of Portugal (RTP)’s main channel.

Mr. António Vitorino holds a degree in law from the University of Lisbon and a master’s degree in political science. He taught constitutional and European law at the University of Lisbon from 1982 to 2008. From 2008 to 2010, he was a visiting professor at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa.