I am currently Director of the Middle East Directions Programme at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute. Previously, I was Ambassador, Head of the EU Delegation to Saudi Arabia, and non-resident Ambassador to Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, UAE and Kuwait. I held positions in the EEAS; the DG for External Relations; the EC Delegations in the Russian Federation, Chile, and Turkey; the UN and the UNDP. A graduate of the University of Bologna and Johns Hopkins University SAIS, I have been a NATO Fellow and a Fulbright Scholar and visiting professor at the University of Chile in Santiago.