Elisabetta Belloni, curriculum and private life of the new director of Dis (in place of Contiano Vecchione)
Draghi has appointed ambassador Elisabetta Belloni as general director of the Security Information Department (Dis), replacing Vecchione, very close to former premier Giuseppe Conte. Here is Belloni's curriculum
The Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, appointed Ambassador Elisabetta Belloni as Director General of the Security Information Department (Dis), replacing the current Director General, Prefect Gennaro Vecchione , appointed by the former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to whom he was very close.
The President Mario Draghi previously informed the president of Copasir, Raffaele Volpi, of his intention, and thanked the prefect Vecchione for the work done to guarantee the security of the State and the institutions.
The appointment is arranged after consultation with the Interministerial Committee for the Security of the Republic.
Dis is the body that coordinates the secret services, the Aisi and the Aise.
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THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM OF ELISABETTA BELLONI
Born in Rome in September 1958, she graduated in Political Science from the LUISS University of Rome
In a diplomatic career since 1985, he served at the Farnesina at the Directorate General for Political Affairs, then in 1986 he worked at the UNIDO in Vienna.
From 1989 to 1992, again in the Political Affairs Directorate, he oversaw the work of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), was Deputy Head of the CSBM (Confidence and Security Building Measures) Delegation in Vienna and, later, a member of the delegation Italian at the Helsinki follow-up conference on the CSCE.
From 1993 to 1996 he was First Secretary in Vienna at the diplomatic mission to international organizations, then, until 1999, he served at the Italian Embassy in Bratislava.
Returning to Rome in 1999, she works in the Russia Office of the Political Affairs Directorate. In 2000 he was head of the Secretariat at the Directorate for the Countries of Europe; in 2001-2002 he was Head of the Office for Central and Eastern European Countries.
From 2002 to 2004 he was head of the Secretariat of the Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs. In 2004 she was appointed Head of the Crisis Unit of the Farnesina.
From 2008 to 2012 he was Director General for Development Cooperation; from 2013 to 2015 he assumed the functions of Director General for Resources and Innovation.
Promoted to rank Ambassador in 2014, in 2015 she assumed the position of Head of Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
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THE PRIVATE LIFE OF BELLONI
Not much is known about Elisabetta Belloni's private life. Although mainly the professional sphere emerged from her history, we know that she married and remained a widow. Her husband, Giorgio Giacomelli, died in February 2017, and there isn't much more information about their wedding.
The portrait of Giorgio Giacomelli emerges in the memory published on the mediciconlafrica.org website. Ambassador of Paduan origins, in over 30 years of high-profile diplomatic posts he has served in territories such as Syria and Somalia.
Throughout his career, he was in charge of the Palestinian Refugee Agency and was Director General of the Department for Development Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
– During her career she was also professor of Development Cooperation at Luiss in Rome.
– Speaks 4 languages (English, French, Spanish, German).
– Among the honors received, that of Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and Knight of the Legion of Honor in France.
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EXPERIENCES AND INSTITUTIONAL RELATIONS
In 1982 he graduated in political science from LUISS and in 1985 he began his diplomatic career. A career that, until the early 2000s, was entirely in the wake of Europe (especially Eastern Europe), international organizations and Russia. In 2002 she was appointed head of the secretariat of the Trieste undersecretary Roberto Antonione, with delegation to the countries of Europe, first-time force supporter, former president of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region between 1998 and 2001. On November 3, 2004 the leap in quality. She was commissioned to carry out the delicate functions of Head of the Crisis Unit in place of Alessandro Cevese. It was Minister Frattini himself who opted to replace Cavese following the inaction of his offices in the face of the kidnapping and killing of the Italian-Iraqi Ayyad AnwarWali. The war in Iraq had also had repercussions in Rome and Cavese's replacement was part of the more general "communicative" reorganization carried out by Frattini, who also decided to integrate a psychological consultant in the Crisis Unit, Professor Michele Piccione. Three days later Elisabetta Belloni immediately found herself having to manage and decide the evacuation of her compatriots in the Ivory Coast. Not even two months later, the devastating tsunami that hit Southeast Asia on December 26 that year, where thousands of Italian tourists were spending their Christmas holidays. An episode that put a strain on the entire operational structure: about twenty people able to guarantee a 24-hour shift in the three rooms on the third floor of the Farnesina. It was Belloni herself who communicated the bad news to the relatives of the victims: “It is only me who gives it to the relatives with whom a dialogue has been established. They have my cell phone and they can call me whenever they want ”.
Belloni proved to be up to the situation, which he later called "the great trial by fire". But that crisis, according to many, represented a turning point, the beginning of an aging phase of the ministry. It is the new era of public diplomacy, fully married by Gianfranco Fini, Frattini's successor. Belloni works closely with Pasquale Terraciano, head of the press service, with a view to innovating the image of a structure previously perceived on the outside as gray and bureaucratic. In 2005, the kidnapping of Giuliana Sgrena in Iraq and Clementina Cantoni in Afghanistan, the attacks in London and Sharm el-Sheikh, the hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the United States. 2006 is the year of the kidnappings in Yemen, Niger and Nigeria, but above all of the Israeli attack and invasion in southern Lebanon, where several hundred Italians were present. Precisely by virtue of the management of this crisis, in December 2007 Belloni will be awarded the French Legion of Honor at Palazzo Farnese for having made a contribution to bilateral cooperation between the two countries. 2007 is the year in which Belloni rises in rank, from embassy councilor to plenipotentiary minister, and is officially appointed Head of the Crisis Unit, therefore no longer a mere acting officer. That year he will deal with the kidnapping of the journalist Mastrogiacomo in Afghanistan, of Father Bossi in the Philippines and of the 2,500 Italians present in Peru at the time of the August earthquake. But it will also develop new communication and information tools (the alert text messages, the traviaresicuri.it and dovesiamonelmondo.it sites), with a view to modernizing the service of the unit, so as to make it the most efficient in Europe and a model in the world. . The flagship of the Farnesina.
In July 2008 the same Frattini, who had put her at the head of the Crisis Unit, once he became minister again, decided to appoint Belloni in an even more decisive role: general director of development cooperation, of which Frattini himself decided to keep the delegation to himself, considering it a priority in view of the upcoming Italian presidency of the G8. Cooperation was a sector destined to gain more and more weight, both as a tool for the country's international projection and as a volume of economic resources to manage. Belloni's goal is to create an “Italy system of Cooperation” by promoting complementarity between state aid, regions and local authorities, the involvement of civil society and closer collaboration with private companies. Ironically, however, the 2009 stability law would have cut funds for cooperation by 56%. And so, the scarcity of resources became an urgent problem, so much so as to convince Belloni, after only ten months in his new position, to spend himself publicly, and not too diplomatically, to request more financial and human resources, "all of which have reached an all-time low" . He hopes for a reform of the law on cooperation that keeps pace with the evolving concept of development and also calls for a paradigm shift so that we no longer look at cooperation as a mere tool for projection of foreign policy but, more broadly, as "a fundamental tool for the stability and security of States ". But politics does not listen to it, on the contrary. Tremonti, Minister of Economy, will say to Frattini: “I am not willing to give funds to the Farnesina, on the contrary I am taking some more from them because you are inefficient. I am responsible for development cooperation through relations with various international organizations ".
In March 2011 Elisabetta Belloni will find herself having to manage the humanitarian crisis unleashed by the war against Libya. War against which Italy did not oppose as and how much it should have. But so be it. Belloni now “has a reputation as an energetic woman. An iron fist and a round of pearls ", this is how an article in La Stampa describes it dedicated to the woman who will manage the double humanitarian mission: operational headquarters in Tunisia, on whose borders waves of refugees from Libya are pressing, and food and health aid in Benghazi , by sea. Mission assigned to her directly by Frattini himself who believes in her and trusts her. Also because Belloni, already from the time in which he headed the Crisis Unit, had established excellent relations with the leaders of Defense and SISMI, traditionally jealous of their prerogatives towards diplomats (and vice versa). At the beginning of 2012 some problems. The first concerns the establishment, in the new Monti government, of the Ministry for International Cooperation, led by Andrea Riccardi, founder of Sant'Egidio. It is a ministry without a portfolio, so Riccardi at least tries to snatch a "co-management", but finds the door barred by the same foreign minister Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata, with the decisive side of two other ministers, Elsa Fornero and Anna Maria Cancellieri.
Closed game. The department headed by Belloni will remain firmly in the Farnesina and Riccardi's ministry would thus bear the name of something over which it did not even have the competence. Fantastic. In March, Elisabetta Belloni dismisses 29 external consultants accused of lying about their residence. They self-certified that they were resident in Italy but in reality they lived regularly in the country where the mission took place, with the result of earning more than double allowances. Scams that occurred between 2006 and 2010 and for which the Farnesina itself had identified some anomalies. Belloni filed a complaint with the Finance Police. “With these checks, a sign of seriousness was given,” he commented lapidary. The esteem gained and the increasingly stable networks of relationships allow Belloni to accelerate the rise. In January 2013 he became general manager of the powerful Resources and Innovation department. In May, in full formation of the Letta government, the name of Belloni began to circulate for Minister Bonino's head of cabinet. Nothing will be done about it: that place will go to Pietro Benassi, aka Piero. But in January 2014 Belloni will conquer his own peak: he becomes ambassador, the highest degree of the diplomatic career. Degree achieved by very few women in Italy. Belloni is now officially in the Pantheon of the grand commis. And also among the highest.
As Director General of Personnel, he works well with Emma Bonino but also with her successor, Federica Mogherini, with whom an important spending review of the ministry will take place. Belloni is aware that protecting national interests "presupposes a machine equipped with adequate resources". But he doesn't seem to have many choices: "We have to do our part today too." And therefore staff cuts, revision of the treatment and allowances of staff on mission, elimination of 33 structures and sale of properties abroad deemed useless. For Italy's foreign policy, as Belloni herself points out with some regret, only 0.2% of the state budget is spent, compared to 1.8% in France and 1.15% in Germany. . The Renzi era begins. The cherchez la femme method is one of the favorite picks (alongside the second-hand youthfulness) that the former mayor of Florence uses to undermine the status quo of the top management of apparatuses, companies and administrations, and then shape them at will. In this context, Belloni's name thus resumes circulation in the totonomine of April 2014. The roles are extremely prestigious: management of the Aise and the presidencies of Eni and Enel.
On his side play experience, competence, decision-making and a strong network of relationships built during a brilliant career. A career as a "technician", because Belloni has always refused to externalize political affiliations or preferences. In an interview in March 2007 she said: “I am proud of having no political matrix. Here there are colleagues on the right, colleagues on the left and some defined institutional ones. I am very proud to call myself institutional ”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/elisabetta-belloni-curriculum-e-vita-privata-del-nuovo-direttore-del-dis-al-posto-del-contiano-vecchione/ on Wed, 12 May 2021 17:35:20 +0000.