I was former Italian Secretary of State for European Affairs in the Renzi and Gentiloni governments (2014-2018). In 2019, I was appointed adviser to former French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe. In the same year, I was elected MEP in the Renew Europe Group, where I am a member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, and the Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries. I am also a substitute member of the Committee on Regional Development, the Special Committee on foreign interference in the democratic processes of the European Union, including disinformation, and the Delegation for relations with India. I am President of UEF, the Union of European Federalists, Secretary-General of the European Democratic Party and President of the EU-India Association. I took part in the working group on linguistic diversity and the French language in Europe before the French Presidency of the Council of the EU. I was re-elected in 2024 with the L’Europe Ensemble list and kept my posts on the AFCO, IMCO and REGI committees. Since July 2024, I have also been coordinator of the Renew group for the IMCO Committee. In October 2024, I became Chairman of the European Parliament Delegation to the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly (EU-UK PPA).

An associate professor at the University of Geneva and Sciences Po Paris, I have taught at several universities in Europe and the United States. I hold a doctorate in public law from the University of Bologna with a thesis on comitology (1996), a postgraduate diploma in international relations from the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (1995), and a master’s degree in international relations from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (1998). I worked in the cabinet of the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, between 2000 and 2004. In 2006 I was appointed adviser on European affairs to the President of the Italian Council of Ministers and between 2008 and 2013 I was group leader of the Partito Democratico in the parliamentary committee for European Union policies and responsible for European policies for the Partito Democratico. In August 2013 I was elected Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and from January to July 2014 I was Vice-President of the Socialist Group in the Assembly of the Council of Europe.

I have published several books, including ‘Génération Erasmus : ils sont déjà au pouvoir’ (Plon, Paris, 2016), ‘L’urgence européenne’ (with Marielle de Sarnez, Thaddée, Paris, 2014), ‘Non ! ce n’est pas la faute à Bruxelles’ (Le Manuscrit, Paris, 2007). In September 2020, I published a book entitled ‘La cible’ on the difficulties of my ‘transnational’ career (éditions Saint-Simon, Paris).