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Draft:Armando Barucco

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Armando Barucco
Secretary-General of the European University Institute
Assumed office
30 June 2025
PresidentPatrizia Nanz
Preceded byMarco Del Panta
Ambassador of Italy to Morocco
Ambassador of Italy to Mauritania
In office
1 March 2021  1 July 2025
PresidentSergio Mattarella
Prime MinisterMario Draghi
Giorgia Meloni
Preceded byBarbara Bregato
Succeeded byPasquale Salzano
Ambassador of Italy to Sudan
In office
November 2011  February 2015
PresidentGiorgio Napolitano
Sergio Mattarella
Prime MinisterMario Monti
Enrico Letta
Matteo Renzi
Personal details
Born1962 (age 6364)
Naples, Italy
Education
ProfessionDiplomat

Armando Barucco (born 1962) is an Italian diplomat who has been Secretary-General of the European University Institute (EUI) since 30 June 2025. A career member of the Italian diplomatic service since 1991, he previously served as Italy's ambassador to Morocco and Mauritania and to Sudan, and directed the ministry's policy planning unit.[1][2]

Early life and education

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Barucco was born in Naples in 1962.[3] He took a law degree at the Sapienza University of Rome and a diploma in advanced European legal studies at the College of Europe in Bruges, which he completed in 1990.[4][1]

Between 2003 and 2006, he pursued research at the Institute for the Study of Religions and Cultures of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and, in 2006-7, he was a fellow of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.[4]

Diplomatic career

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Early postings

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Barucco entered the Italian diplomatic service in 1991, initially serving in the Farnesina's directorate-general for economic affairs. In 1992-93 he was deputy head of the Italian special diplomatic delegation for Somalia in Mogadishu during the Unified Task Force and UNOSOM operations.[3][5]

He served in Kuala Lumpur from 1996 to 2000, latterly as deputy head of mission, before moving to Italy's Permanent Representation to the European Union in Brussels, where between 2000 and 2002 he acted as 'Mertens' counsellor with responsibility for preparing meetings of Coreper I. He was Consul General in Mumbai from 2002 to 2003, then returned to Rome to work under the director-general for European integration.[3][5]

From 2007 to 2011 Barucco was Italy's 'Antici' counsellor at the Permanent Representation to the EU, responsible for general coordination and the preparation of meetings of the European Council, including work on the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon and the establishment of the European External Action Service.[6][1]

Ambassador to Sudan

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Barucco was ambassador to Sudan from November 2011 to February 2015.[4] He was reported to have played a part in the resolution of several human rights cases during his posting, among them that of Mariam Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman sentenced to death for apostasy in 2014 and subsequently released and flown to Italy.[7][4] From 2013 he also had charge of the first European Union cooperation programme managed by Italy, for the rehabilitation of the health system in eastern Sudan.[6][4]

Policy Planning Unit

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From March 2015 to February 2021 Barucco directed the Italian foreign ministry's unit for analysis, planning, statistics and historical documentation - its policy planning unit - reporting to the ministry's secretary-general.[4][3] In that capacity he was responsible for organising five editions of the Rome MED - Mediterranean Dialogues conference between 2016 and 2020.[7][4]

Ambassador to Morocco and Mauritania

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Barucco took up the post of ambassador to Morocco on 1 March 2021, succeeding Barbara Bregato, and was concurrently accredited to Mauritania.[3][7] On taking office he framed the relationship in terms of a shared Mediterranean space and a joint Italian-Moroccan agenda for the wider Mediterranean and Africa.[3]

In 2021 he was involved in the case of Ikram Nazih, an Italian-Moroccan student detained in Morocco over a social media post; the then foreign minister Luigi Di Maio publicly thanked Barucco for his work on the case following her release.[8] In an interview with ANSA in 2022 he described Morocco as a privileged partner for Italy and the European Union and a key actor for stability in the wider Mediterranean and the Sahel, noting that bilateral trade had grown by 27 per cent in 2021 to approach €3.5 billion.[9]

He was succeeded in Rabat by Pasquale Salzano, previously president of SIMEST, with effect from 2 July 2025.[10][a]

EUI Secretary-General

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The EUI's High Council appointed Barucco to the post of Secretary-General by a decision of 5 June 2025, for a term of four years.[11] He assumed office on 30 June 2025, succeeding Marco Del Panta, a former Italian ambassador to Austria who had held the post since 2021.[1][12]

The Secretary-General supports the EUI President in the organisational, administrative and governance functions of the Institute, acts as principal liaison with the contracting states, the EU institutions and the Italian government, oversees the accession process for EU member states not yet party to the Convention, and has responsibility for the Institute's funding and alumni strategies, legal and compliance matters, and risk management.[13][12]

In his first public address in the role, delivered at Palazzo Buontalenti in Florence, Barucco addressed the perception of the Institute as an "ivory tower" separated from the city by its location in the hills of Fiesole and argued for research-driven, long-term policy frameworks as a corrective to the short-termism he saw in post-pandemic politics.[12]

Selected writings

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Barucco has contributed to edited volumes on Italian diplomacy and has written for the Italian foreign policy review AffarInternazionali, published by the Istituto Affari Internazionali.[14] He contributed to 150 anni di diplomazia italiana. Li dimostra?, edited by Daniele Verga (Aracne, 2018), and wrote the preface to I rapporti tra Italia e Marocco nel XIX secolo (Editoriale Scientifica, 2023).[15][16]

See also

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Notes

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  1. Sources differ on the end of his Moroccan posting. The EUI gives his tenure as 2021–2024, while Italian reporting indicates he remained in post until mid-2025, with his successor taking up the role on 2 July 2025.[1][10]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Ambassador Armando Barucco appointed Secretary General of the EUI". European University Institute. 2 July 2025. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  2. "Armando Barucco new Secretary General of the European University Institute in Florence". Eunews. 3 July 2025. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Armando Barucco nuovo ambasciatore in Marocco". AISE (in Italian). 1 March 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "L'Ambassadeur" (in French). Embassy of Italy in Rabat. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  5. 1 2 "Armando Barucco: curriculum" (in Italian). Comune di Modena. 2015. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  6. 1 2 "Armando Barucco". Policy Center for the New South. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 "Marocco: Armando Barucco nuovo ambasciatore italiano". Giornale Diplomatico (in Italian). 1 March 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  8. "Liberata Ikram Nazih, la ragazza italo-marocchina che aveva condiviso una foto anti-Islam". Il Sole 24 Ore (in Italian). August 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  9. Piscitelli, Olga (5 August 2022). "Ambasciatore Barucco: "Marocco attore fondamentale nel Mediterraneo"" (in Italian). ANSA. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  10. 1 2 "Istituto Universitario Europeo di Fiesole, Armando Barucco nominato nuovo Segretario Generale dopo l'incarico di Ambasciatore in Marocco". Il Giornale d'Italia (in Italian). 23 June 2025. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  11. "High Council Decision No. 2/2025 of 5 June 2025" (PDF). European University Institute. 5 June 2025. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  12. 1 2 3 "Armando Barucco appointed Secretary General of the European University Institute". The Florentine. 2 July 2025. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  13. "Office of the Secretary General". European University Institute. 10 July 2025. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  14. "Armando Barucco". AffarInternazionali (in Italian). Istituto Affari Internazionali. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  15. "Armando Barucco" (in Italian). Aracne editrice. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  16. "Newsletter Biblioteca e Archivio Storico" (in Italian). Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
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Category:1962 births Category:Living people Category:Diplomats from Naples Category:Sapienza University of Rome alumni Category:College of Europe alumni