Sandro Gozi

Sandro Gozi (born 25 March 1968) is an Italian politician formerly of the Democratic Party who has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2020.

Gozi was born on 25 March 1968 in Sogliano al Rubicone.

In 1990, he was a member of the MSI's Forlì Youth Front, circumstance which he later denied.

He said to have voted for the first time for the Italian Republican Party.

After attending high school in Cesena, he graduated in law from the University of Bologna in 1992.

He then obtained a diplôme d'études approfondies at SciencesPo in Paris in 1994.

Between 1995 and 1996, Gozi worked in Italy's foreign service, dealing with economic relations with the states of the former Yugoslavia, Turkey, Cyprus, Albania, and Greece.

In 1996, he defended a PhD in public law in Bologna with a thesis on European comitology.

He subsequently was an official at the General Secretariat of the European Commission for almost a decade from 1996 to 2005, dealing with relations with the European Parliament, and then with the negotiation for the adoption of the euro.

In 1997, he participated in the negotiations on the Amsterdam Treaty.

He also holds a master's degree in international politics from Brussels Free University in 1998.

During his university years, Gozi was close to the post-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) of Giorgio Almirante, with whom he is portrayed in a photo.

From 1999 to 2008, he was director of the ISMaPP institute in Brussels.

From 2000 to 2004, he served as political assistant and member of cabinet of then European Commission President Romano Prodi, and then at the Bureau of European Policy Advisers (BEPA) at the start of the first Barroso Commission.

In 2001, Gozi was also appointed coordinator for the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe.

Gozi has been visiting lecturer at various European universities, including the College of Europe in Bruges (in 2001), and the European College in Parma, as well as the Drew University of Madison, New Jersey.

When he returned to Italy in 2005, he initially worked as diplomatic adviser to leftist Nichi Vendola, president of the Apulia region.

He was a member of Italy's Chamber of Deputies from 2006 to 2018, and was elected to the European Parliament in 2019, representing France on the list of Emmanuel Macron's LREM party.

In 2006, he joined Romano Prodi's electoral committee in view of the 2006 Italian general election and served as deputy secretary general of the European Democratic Party.

A member of the national parliament since the 2006 elections who was elected in Umbria on the list of L'Ulivo, Gozi again advised then-prime minister Prodi on European Union (EU) politics until 2008, and later served as chairman of the parliamentary committee on Schengen, Europol and immigration affairs.

In 2007, he was one of the founders of the Democratic Party (PD) as a member of the national leadership, and elected to the national assembly of the party for the Democrats for Veltroni faction.

Between 2008 and 2013, he headed the PD delegation in the parliamentary committee for European affairs, and he was in charge at national level of EU policies for the PD.

At the 2008 Italian general election, Gozi was re-elected as MP for Umbria for the PD, again serving as head of the party delegation in the parliamentary committee for European affairs.

At the 2009 PD leadership election, Gozi served as national manager and Emilia-Romagna coordinator for the Ignazio Marino campaign.

Under the new party secretary Pier Luigi Bersani, he then served as president of the Europe Forum of the party and head of the Together for the PD faction.

In 2010, Bersani appointed him as responsible for Europe in the party secretariat.

That same yeat, Gozi launched a domestic campaign to support the appointment of Mario Draghi, the governor of Banca d'Italia, as next President of the European Central Bank.

From 2011 to 2013, Gozi was ambassador for the Rome bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

In September 2012, he announced he would run for the 2012 centre-left primary election for the office of President of the Council; he had to withdraw after not being able to collect the required 95 signatures of party delegates.

At the 2013 Italian general election, Gozi was elected again as MP for Lombardy for the PD. In addition to his role in the Italian Parliament, Gozi was a member of the Italian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 2013 until 2015.

In the Assembly, he served on the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights (2013–2015), the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy (2013–2014), and the Sub-Committee on Human Rights (2014–2015).

During that time, he also served as one of the Assembly's vice-presidents, and since January 2014 as vice-president of the Socialist Group in the assembly.

On 28 February 2014, Gozi joined the Renzi Cabinet as Under-Secretary for European Affairs in the office of Matteo Renzi.

Despite not receiving the title of minister, as his predecessors, Gozi was tasked with coordinating, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the six months of Italy's presidency of the EU Council.

In 2014 and 2015, he also signed up as member of the Italian Radicals.

In 2014, Gozi and Harlem Désir, the then French Secretary of State for European Affairs, set out a list of priorities after talks in Paris, saying the European Commission should adopt more growth-friendly economic policies and grant maximum flexibility within existing EU budget rules to countries undertaking growth-promoting investments and structural economic reforms.

In 2015, Gozi called for a two-speed Europe that would let countries which desired closer integration forge ahead.

A year later, he said Italy also wanted a single economy minister for the eurozone answerable to elected governments.

At the 2018 Italian general election, Gozi was candidate for Parliament in his native Emilia-Romagna, where he came in third among the PD candidates and was not elected.

In November 2018 in Vienna, he was elected president of the Union of European Federalists.