He was previously Director for Interinstitutional relations, Policy coordination and Public diplomacy at the European External Action Service (EEAS). His responsibilities covered relations with all EU institutions and representation of the EEAS in negotiations having institutional or legal implications, including sanctions. He was in charge of coordinating all political and legislative files and preparing the meetings of the Foreign Affairs Council. He was also responsible for public diplomacy activities (including promoting cultural affairs in EU external relations), strategic communication issues. In this context he oversaw the EEAS communications strategy including activities aimed at fighting information manipulation from foreign sources.

Earlier he was Director for Human Rights and Democracy at the EEAS. In this capacity he was responsible for the organization and contents of all HR-related dialogues and consultations between the EU and partner countries (over 40 of them), the development of policy guidelines, and guidance to EU bilateral and multilateral delegations in matters pertaining to HR and democracy support. He was also responsible for Election Observation activities.

He was also Head of the Secretariat of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament between 2009 and 2014, where he advised the chair on the priorities and organization of the committee work.

With a background in languages and literature, he is fluent in English, French and German and has some knowledge of Spanish.

He is Italian, married and has two sons.