José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa , (Porto, 6 September 1957), commonly known simply as José Sócrates ( ) is the Prime Minister of Portugal and Secretary-General of the Socialist Party. Sócrates became Prime Minister on 12 March 2005. For the second half of 2007, he acted as the President-in-Office of the Council of the European Union. In addition to these posts, José Sócrates was Portugal's Minister for Youth and Sports and one of the organisers of the UEFA Euro 2004 football championship in Portugal, as well as being a former Environment Minister in the governments of António Guterres.
Biography
Early years
José Sócrates was born in Porto on 6 September 1957, and was registered as a newborn in Vilar de Maçada, Alijó municipality in northeastern Portugal, since the locality was his family ancestral homeland. However, the young José Sócrates lived throughout his childhood and teen years with his father, a divorced building designer, in the city of Covilhã, Cova da Beira subregion in central inland Portugal, in the Centro region. His parents are Fernando Pinto de Sousa (b. Vilar de Maçada, Alijó, 15 November 1926) and wife Maria Adelaide de Carvalho Monteiro (b. Vilar de Maçada, Alijó, 8 October 1931). He has two younger siblings, António, born ca. 1962, and Ana Maria, died in 1988.
Education
José Sócrates studied in Covilhã's basic and secondary schools, until the age of 18. Then, in 1975, he went to Coimbra in order to attend a higher education institution. He earned in 1979 his 4-year bacharelato degree as a civil technical engineer from the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra (established in 1974 and later incorporated into the Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra in 1988). From 1987 to 1993, he attended Universidade Lusíada , a private university in Lisbon, enrolling in law, but dropped out. In 1994/95, already a well known politician, he briefly attended the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa where he completed some academic disciplines in order to get a CESE diploma (a complementary diploma to his bacharelato degree because until 1999 the polytechnic institutions did not offer licenciatura degrees), but instead, under circumstances which would provoke a controversy in 2007, he earned in 1996 the licenciatura (licentiate degree) in civil engineering from the Universidade Independente , a private university in Lisbon which was shut down by Portuguese authorities in 2007/2008. He also has an MBA awarded in 2005 by ISCTE, a public university institute in Lisbon.
Political career
José Sócrates was one of the founders of JSD (the youth branch of PSD - Portuguese Social Democratic Party) before changing his political affiliation and apply for membership in the PS - Portuguese Socialist Party. He has been a member of the Socialist Party since 1981. José Sócrates served as a technical engineer for the Covilhã City Council, and was a member of the Portuguese Parliament from 1987 until 1995, representing the Castelo Branco electoral district. While serving as the chairperson of the Castelo Branco Federation of the Socialist Party (1983-1996), he was elected to the Party's National Secretariat in 1991. From 1989 to 1996, he served as a member of the Covilhã Municipal Assembly. He served as spokesperson on environmental affairs for the Socialist Party from 1991 to 1995. In 1995, he entered government as secretary of state for Environment in the first government of António Guterres. Two years later, Sócrates became Minister for Youth and Sports and was one of the organizers of the EURO 2004 cup in Portugal. He became Minister for Environment in Guterres' second government in 1999. Following the elections of 2002 (won by José Manuel Durão Barroso), Sócrates became a member of the opposition in the Portuguese Parliament. Meanwhile he also had a program of political analysis joint with Pedro Santana Lopes on RTP. After the resignation of Ferro Rodrigues as party leader in 2004, he won a bid for the post of secretary-general against Manuel Alegre and João Soares, winning the vote of nearly 80% of party members on 24 September 2004. After the victory of his party in the 2005 Portuguese election, Sócrates was called on 24 February by president Jorge Sampaio to form a new government - the 17 th Constitutional Government (after 1976). He also became a Member of the Portuguese Council of State as the Prime-Minister.
Personal life
Family and residence
A father of two, Sócrates is divorced from Sofia da Costa Pinto Fava, daughter of José Fava and Clotilde da Costa Pinto, by whom he has two sons, José Miguel (b. 1993) and Eduardo (b. 1995) Fava Pinto de Sousa. Sócrates lives in Lisbon, although he is a registered elector of the municipality of Covilhã, the place where he votes.
Health and well-being
José Sócrates had photos of himself taken during his morning jog at places like the Red Square in Moscow, Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana, Luanda, and Lisbon. In January 2008 a smoking ban entered force in Portugal's public buildings and public transport, but Sócrates was reported to have been smoking in May during a private state flight to Venezuela where he met Hugo Chávez. He has since admitted it was a mistake, apologised and promised to quit smoking. In addition, he claimed he was not aware he was breaking the law when he did so.
Prime Minister of Portugal
After the Portuguese legislative election of 2005, Sócrates was called on 24 February by president Jorge Sampaio to form a new government. Sócrates and his first government ( XVII Governo Constitucional ) took office on 12 March 2005.
After the Portuguese legislative election of 2009, held on 27 September 2009, José Sócrates was elected for a second term as Prime Minister of Portugal. The new government was sworn into office on 26 October 2009.
XVII e XVIII Governos Constitucionais (17th and 18th Constitutional Governments)
Major policies
Administrative reforms
The XVII Governo Constitucional government, headed by Prime Minister José Sócrates, created new rules and implemented reforms aiming better efficiency and rationalized resource allocation in the public sector, fighting civil servant overcapacity ( excedentários ) and achieving less bureaucracy for both citizens and companies (eg: empresa na hora , PRACE - Programa de Reestruturação da Administração Central do Estado , and SIMPLEX - Programa de Simplificação Administrativa e Legislativa), among others. Since the XVII Governo Constitucional government (with José Sócrates as Prime Minister and Teixeira dos Santos as Minister of Finance) Portugal's fiscal policy improved with a steady increase of the number of taxpayers and the growth of the receipt amount from State taxation. Several reforms and measures implemented in 2006/2007 by the government ( XVII Governo Constitucional - headed by Prime Minister José Sócrates), resulted in improved welfare system financial sustainability but reduced income expectations of future pensioners up to 40%. In addition, economically active people must work for more years before retirement than formerly. After the Portuguese regionalization referendum of 1998 where the "No" to regionalization of the country into seven regions was victorious, the XVII Governo Constitucional government announced in January 2009 its firm intention of starting again a regionalization process for Portugal. According to this governmental project, mainland Portugal is to be regionalized de jure into five regions with a wide range of administrative autonomy, using the already established NUTS 2 system: Alentejo, Algarve, Centro, Lisbon, and Norte.
Technological plan
One of the government's main policies was the Plano Tecnológico (Technological Plan), aimed to increase Portugal's competitive advantage through the modernization of its economy. The plan consisted of three key areas: knowledge, technology and innovation. The government goal was to modernize the Portuguese economy by concentrating its efforts and investment in these three key areas. A low-cost Intel-based netbook for use by children announced by Sócrates's government cabinet, named Magalhães (after Fernão de Magalhães) and packaged and assembled for the Portuguese school-age children and the low-to-middle income economy export market by the Portuguese company J.P. Sá Couto, headquartered in Matosinhos, Norte region, was among the government's innovations under the Technological Plan policy. Other governmental effort regarding the accomplishment of the government's technological plan was the state-support provided to a Portuguese factory of the Germany-based semiconductor company Qimonda AG, in Vila do Conde, Norte region, when the parent company filed a bankruptcy petition with the local court in Munich, Germany, in early 2009. Qimonda Portugal was at the time one of the top Portuguese net exporters of technology.
Educational reforms
The government allocated more resources for education policy and reorganised the sector aiming more choice and better quality in voca
Benvenuti nel sito ufficiale della Stazione Sperimentale per le ...
Laboratorio Cosmetica. Introduzione. Il Laboratorio Cosmetica è il laboratorio SSOG di ultima costituzione, in quanto solo in tempi recenti il settore “Prodotti ...
ALKEMILA - Laboratorio de Cosmetica Vegetal
Laboratorio de Cosmética Vegetal
Laboratorio de cosmética
cosmetica fabricación elaboración fabrica ... Nos esforzamos para que sus ideas cosméticas se hagan realidad con poca inversión.
Alissi Brontë :: Alta Cosmética y Maquillaje Profesional ::
Laboratorio Cosmética Vídeo Presentación Eventos Folletos y Catálogos ... ALISSI BRONTË - Camino de Las Bronte s/n - 30120 El Palmar - Murcia - (Spain)
Laboratorio Fitonature SRL - Cosmética y Tecnología Médica
index
Odontologia Cosmetica San Diego, Laboratorio de Cosmetica Dental
Laboratorio Dental de Odontologia Cosmetica en San Diego California ... País: United States: Estado: California: Ciudad: San Diego: Dirección: 717 Union Street, Suite L, San ...
LABORATORIO DE COSMETICA AVANZADA S.R.L. (L.A.C.A.)
*** Atención La información representada con asteriscos *** esá disponible en www.guiasenior.com LABORATORIO DE COSMETICA AVANZADA S.R.L. (L.A.C.A.)
Laboratorio Cosmetica - Chelab Laboratories
Laboratorio Cosmetica . Mediante test di efficacia, microbiologici, chimici e reologici, il personale altamente qualificato del laboratorio cosmetici è in grado di eseguire la ...
HOMEOSAN Laboratorio
Homeosan Laboratorio
COSMÉTICA ARMONÍA ::
Fabricante de cosmética natural, artículos basados en la producción artesanal. Laboratorio de Cosmética Armonía, S.A. - Insc. Reg. Merc. de Zaragoza, tomo 683 ...