Career in national politics Vitorino graduated in law from the
University of Lisbon. A lawyer by training, he was first elected to the
Assembly of the Republic (Portugal), the national parliament, in the
1980 elections. In 1983, he served as Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs, a junior minister role in the grand coalition government led by
Prime Minister Mário Soares. After the government's defeat in the
1985 elections, Vitorino became a deputy secretary for the
Governor of Macau. In 1989, Vitorino returned to Lisbon to become a judge of the
Constitutional Court, ending his term in 1994. In 1995, Vitorino became
Minister for National Defence and Deputy Prime Minister in the first government of
António Guterres. He resigned in 1997 for being suspected of
tax evasion.
Member of the European Commission, 1998–2004 After being cleared of the charges, Vitorino was appointed
European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs, during the
commission led by
President Romano Prodi. As a representative of the European Commission, he took part in the conversations that drew up the
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the
Convention on the Future of Europe. At the convention, he chaired a reflection group on the
European Court of Justice. When Guterres ruled himself out of the contest for the role of
President of the European Commission in June 2004, he instead threw his support behind Vitorino. The post eventually went to
José Manuel Barroso.
José Sócrates become the new leader of the party instead of Vitorino, going on to win a majority in the 2005 general election.
Career in the private sector In 2005, Vitorino became a partner at Cuatrecasas, Gonçalves Pereira & Associados, one of the most influential law firms in the Iberian Peninsula. Between 2006 and 2007, he served as member of the
Amato Group, a group of high-level European politicians unofficially working on rewriting the
Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe into what became known as the
Treaty of Lisbon following its rejection by
French and
Dutch voters. From November 2008 until June 2009, Vitorino served as member of a six-member panel of EU experts advising the Bulgarian government. Set up by Bulgaria's
Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, the advisory board was chaired by
Dominique de Villepin and mandated to recommend ways to help the country adjust to
EU membership. Vitorino was the President of
Notre Europe, the European
think tank founded by
Jacques Delors, from 2011 until 2016. From December 2011 until May 2012, he served as member of the institute's Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa group, a high-level expert group to reflect on the reform of the
Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union. Vitorino also had an ongoing role as commentator for
RTP 1's programme
Notas Soltas hosted by television journalist . In 2017 Vitorino was part of the advisory boards of the "
International Migration Initiative" (
Open Society Foundations) and the "Transatlantic Council on Migration" (
Migration Policy Institute).
International Organization for Migration, 2018–2023 In December 2017, the Portuguese government under the leadership of
Prime Minister António Costa put forward Vitorino for the post of Director General of the
International Organisation for Migration (IOM), as successor of
William Lacy Swing. On 29 June 2018, the member states of IOM elected Vitorino as Director General, effective October 2018. He was chosen over American Ken Isaacs, who was eliminated in early voting rounds, and by acclamation over the runner-up, Laura Thompson of Costa Rica. When seeking a second term, he opted to step down after the first round of voting. Amy Pope of the United States subsequently became the first woman to be elected as Director General. ==Other activities==