Maria da Graça Carvalho


Maria da Graça Martins da Silva Carvalho is a Portuguese professor, engineer, and politician of the Social Democratic Party who has been serving as Minister of Environment and Energy in the government of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro since 2024.
She was a member of the European Parliament in the 2019-2024 term, having held office in the 2009-2014 legislature.
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Early life and education

Carvalho has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Instituto Superior Técnico of the University of Lisbon and a Ph.D. from the Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine in the United Kingdom.

Early career

Carvalho was a professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, in the area of energy, environment, climate change and sustainable development.

Career in national politics

From 2003 to 2005, Carvalho was a member of Portugal's government, first as Minister of Science and Higher Education and later as the Minister of Science, Innovation and Higher Education in the cabinets of successive prime ministers José Manuel Barroso and Pedro Santana Lopes.

Career in the European Commission

Carvalho acted as adviser to Durão Barroso in his capacity as President of the European Commission from 2006 to 2009.

Member of the European Parliament, 2009–2014

In 2009, Carvalho was elected Member of the European Parliament for the Social Democratic Party, a position she held until 2014.
Carvalho first served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2014 as a representative of Portugal's Social Democratic Party . She was a member of the Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. In this capacity, she was also the Parliament's rapporteur on the Horizon 2020 research framework program. In addition to her committee assignments, she was a member of the Parliament's delegation to the ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

Return to the European Commission

From November 2014 until December 2015, Carvalho served as an adviser to European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Carlos Moedas. She later moved as a staff member to the Commission's Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, until 2019.

Member of the European Parliament, 2019–2024

In 2019, Carvalho was again elected to the European Parliament for the 9th parliamentary term.
She integrated the European People’s Party group. She was Vice-President of the Committee on Fisheries. She was a full member of the Industry, Research, and Energy Committee where she was elected Vice Coordinator for the EPP Group. She was a full member of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, the Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence in the Digital Age, and the Delegation for Relations with the United States of America. She was an alternate member of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, the Delegation for Relations with the countries of Central America, the Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly, and the Delegation for Relations with the countries of Central Asia.
In the mandate in the European Parliament, she was rapporteur for the Strategic Programme of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, the Single Basic Act covering nine partnerships with industry under the Horizon Europe framework program, the European Partnership for High-Performance Computing and the opinions on the New European Industrial Strategy and the Data Regulation, among others. She was the lead rapporteur for the Regulation on the Protection of the Union against manipulating the wholesale energy market. In addition, she was the EPP negotiator of the European Electricity Market Design.
In her activity in this legislature, she had been committed to gender equality issues, having been a negotiator for the European People's Party Group regarding the directive on the participation of women on the boards of directors of listed companies and rapporteur, for the FEMM committee, of the report on the Digital Divide between Men and Women, in addition to being involved in several actions aimed at promoting gender equality in all sectors of society.

Return to national politics

On April 1, 2024, Graça Carvalho resigned as an MEP to become Minister of Environment and Energy in the government of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro.
During her tenure, Graça Carvalho led the Portuguese government's response to the 2025 Iberian Peninsula blackout and later presented plans to invest up to 400 million euros to improve grid management and boost battery storage.

Other activities

Recognition

On 8 March 2002, on International Women's Day, Carvalho was decorated with the rank of Grand Officer of the Order of Public Instruction by Jorge Sampaio. She was made a Member of the Council of the Orders of Civil Merit on 9 June 2016.
Carvalho is also the recipient of the following awards: