Biography
Mário João Fernandes has been a consultant at Abreu Advogados since 2014, working mainly in areas of public law, with a particular focus on legislative procedure, regulatory production and negotiation of regulatory regimes (domestic law, European Union law, international negotiations), as well as the institutional design of complex legal regimes (organic laws, coordination between central, regional and local powers, public-private partnerships, concessions, regulated economic activities). He has also been involved in matters related to market regulation, competition, public procurement and foreign investment, having participated in some of the most important restructuring operations of multinational groups in Portugal. Mário João Fernandes was legal advisor to the Portuguese delegation to the North Atlantic Organization (DELNATO) in Brussels (2007-2012); coordinator for European affairs in the Office of the Minister of Justice, responsible in this area for the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, representative of the Minister of Justice in the Group for the Future of Justice in charge of preparing the contribution to the future Stockholm Programme for the area of Freedom, Justice and Security, liaison officer for the area of justice with the Vice-President of the European Commission, Commissioner Franco Frattini (2007-2008).
He was also a consultant in Brussels in the areas of the environment, energy, public markets, telecommunications and justice and home affairs (2006); Chief technical advisor to the Permanent Representation of Portugal to the European Union in Brussels, responsible for the environment (2002-2005); Assistant to the Minister for the Environment and Spatial Planning (1999-2002); Assistant to the Secretary of State for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (1998-1999); Assistant to the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs (1997-1998); Expert on the inter-ministerial working group for restructuring the maritime authority system, set up by Council of Ministers Resolution 185/96 of November 28 (1997-1998) and Assistant to the Minister for the Presidency (1996-1997). He has also maintained a strong relationship with teaching, having been a lecturer in Constitutional Law II, Public International Law I, Political Science and Constitutional Law I and Public International Law II at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (1992-2001), Director of the Legal Magazine of the Academic Association of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (1995-2002), and is currently a lecturer at the Institute of Legal and Political Sciences of the same Faculty.