Speaking to journalists in the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels, the Commissioner-designate from Portugal said that the European Parliament had "settled" the issue of the possible existence of a conflict of interest between her portfolio - Cohesion and Reforms - and her husband, Fernando Freire de Sousa, who is president of the Coordination and Regional Development Commission (CCDR) Norte, the body responsible for spending EU funds.

Elisa Ferreira gave as an example the absence of conflict between "a commissioner being Portuguese and then relating to her own country".

However, the Commissioner-designate said that she had asked the European Commission for clarification "so that there would be no doubt" and was still waiting for a reply.

According to Ferreira, the issue regarding the shares she held in the Sonae Group, which led to a request for further clarification by the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Assembly, has been resolved.

"The jury asked me if I couldn't sell a very small shareholding in a Portuguese company and even before the letter [from that committee] arrived, I had already sold them because in fact I had no interest in the, and if they were disturbing, fine", she explained.

On Thursday, in a statement, the Commissioner-designate's team reported that, "faced with questions raised about the holding of Sonae SGPS shares", Elisa Ferreira had decided to give the order to sell the shares worth about €13,800.

According to Elisa Ferreira, "it was the only issue that the EP had raised" about her", considering that "the scrutiny of people's conflicts of interest is part" of the process and that it is "very good that things are put in a clear manner".

Ferreira will be heard by the Committee on Regional Development of the European Parliament in Brussels on 2 October at a hearing which will start at 18:30 local time (one hour less in Lisbon) and will also be attended by MEPs from the Committees on Budgets and Economic and Monetary Affairs.

The Commissioner-designate met today with the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, and other MEPs from the parliamentary committees attending her hearing, "to exchange views and to hear what they expect from the next term of office of the European Commission", chaired by Ursula von der Leyen, which will be voted on by the MEPs as a whole on 23 October.