President of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies Maria Rodriguez Visits the ICC

Ms. Zhou Hong (Left) and Ms. Maria Rodrigues (Right)

From 3 to 4 December 2025, Ms. Maria João Rodrigues, President of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies, President of the Board of the "Re-Imagine Europa", and former Minister of Labor, Solidarity, and Social Security of Portugal, visited the International Cooperation Center (ICC). She was received by Ms. Zhou Hong, Chairperson of the Academic Committee of the ICC and Member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), and Mr. Zhang Yu, Convener of the Joint Meeting and Director of the Steering Committee of the ICC. Zhou Hong and Maria attended two international seminars held by the ICC: "The Europe’s Future and China-Europe Relations" and "Global Governance Reform and the Possibility of Sino-European Cooperation". Maria was invited as a keynote speaker to deliver thematic speeches. Experts and scholars from the Institute of European Studies at CASS; the ICC; the China Institute of International Studies at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation at the Ministry of Commerce; the Institute of Political Science at the CASS; the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies at the CASS, as well as the School of Sociology at Beijing Normal University, among others, attended the seminars and participated in the discussions.

Maria Rodrigues served as Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security (formerly Ministry of Employment and Social Security) under Portuguese Prime Minister António Guterres. During Romano Prodi's presidency of the European Commission, she was involved in EU policy planning and was one of the principal architects of the landmark EU "Lisbon Strategy". She was leading the European Union's Social Science Advisory Group. Elected as a Member of the European Parliament, she became Vice-President of the Socialists and Democrats Group, the second-largest political group in the European Parliament. She has long served as a senior advisor to the European Commission and EU Council Presidencies, where she was leading or deeply involved in major European initiatives such as the "Europe 2020 Strategy", the drafting of the "Lisbon Treaty", the implementation of the "Lisbon Strategy", and the reform of the Eurozone. Throughout her career, she has published over a hundred works and has been actively engaged in global academic and policy dialogues.