President of WAREG and of the Portuguese Water and Waste Regulation Authority

Vera Eiró

Academic background

PhD in Public Law, NOVA School of Law, Post-graduate course in Environment and Planning Law, Coimbra University Law School, Law Degree, NOVA School of Law.

Professional Experience

Prof. Eiró is a Public Law and Regulatory Expert in Portugal. She was executive Board Member at ERSAR and is now the President of the Board of Directors of ERSAR.
She is a Public Law Professor since 2012 and her research and teaching areas in the academia cover Regulation, Administrative Law, Public Procurement and Planning Law.

Until November 2020, she was a Counsel and Head of Public Law and Regulatory in the Finance department at Linklaters LLP (Lisbon office) having also worked at Linklaters LLP Paris office (2004). Her practice focused on public procurement and administrative, environmental, energy and planning laws. As a legal practitioner, she has over 15 years of experience in providing legal advice in regulatory and public law issues relevant to project finance, litigation and M&A transactions, in highly regulated sectors.

Vera was an assistant in the Portuguese Constitutional Court and has also been appointed arbitrator in administrative law/public law and consumer disputes.

Director, Directorate C – Zero Pollution, Water Resilience & Green Urban Transition, DG Environment, European Commission

Veronica Manfredi

Veronica Manfredi is Director in DG Environment since February 2018.

Her Directorate plays a pivotal role in leading Europe towards Zero-Pollution whilst securing a sound implementation of the Water Resilience Strategy in good synergy with the implementation of the Ocean Pact, both adopted by the Commission in June 2025. Her Directorate also co-leads on Chemicals legislation, including REACH, and steers on the sound implementation of the Green City Accord which, in synergy with the Smart and Climate-Neutral Cities Mission, the Covenant of Mayors and other major urban initiatives, aims at tangibly delivering on the European Green Deal goals at local level.

Internationally, her team leads the EU negotiations within the so called ‘triple COPs’ (Stockholm, Basel and Rotterdam) as well as on the UN Minamata Convention on Mercury and the UN Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution. It also provides steady support to the work of the four Regional Sea Conventions (notably the HELCOM – Baltic Sea, OSPAR – North Atlantic Sea, Barcelona – Mediterranean Sea, and the Bucharest Conventions – Black Sea) and the International Commissions for the Protection of the Rhine and Danube rivers.

A lawyer by background, Veronica deepened her knowledge of International and EU law in Rome, Turin, Kiel, Bruges and Brussels.