Early beginnings

Fernandes served as president of JSD - Social Democratic Youth of Vila Verde (1992-1993) and as leader of the Braga district political committee of JSD (1994-1996).^[4]

Member of the European Parliament, 2009–2024

In parliament, Fernandes was a member of the Committee on Budgets. He was also his parliamentary group's coordinator on the committee.^[5][6] In this capacity, he was the parliament's rapporteur on the 2012 and 2016 annual budgets as well as the European Fund for Strategic Investments.^{[citation needed]} In 2020, he served as the Parliament's co-rapporteur (alongside Valérie Hayer) on a successful motion to assign new tax revenues to the budget of the European Union to repay its joint borrowing of 750 billion euros ($888 billion) for economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.^[7]

In addition to his committee assignments, Fernandes was part of the parliament's delegations to Brazil, for relations with Mercosur and to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly.^[8] He had previously been a member of the delegations to China (2009–2014), to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean (2014–2019) and for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union (2014–2019).^[9] He was also a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal Areas,^[10] the European Parliament Intergroup on Disability^[11] and the MEPs Against Cancer group.^[12]

Following the 2019 elections, Fernandes was part of a cross-party working group in charge of drafting the European Parliament's five-year work program on economic and fiscal policies as well as trade.^[13]