Rossella Franchini Sherifis
Ambassador of Italy to the Republic of Slovenia
Ambassador Rossella Franchini has started her mission in Ljubljana in September 2011, after having held key positions both in Rome and in Italy’s diplomatic and consular network.
In Rome, she was seconded to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers as Head of the Office for EU and International Relations of the Department of Tourism from November 2008 to August 2011, a period when the promotion of tourism became a priority for the Italian Government. During her tenure, she advanced bilateral relations with numerous countries, fostered new activities on the regional scale – in particular in the framework of the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative – and developed an intense collaboration with the European Union and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). In 2010 Italy was unanimously elected President of the Executive Council of the UNWTO.
From September 2005 to October 2008, she was First Counselor at the Permanent Representation of Italy to the European Union, responsible for the EU topics regarding Mediterranean/Middle East/Gulf and representing Italy in the relevant Committees and Working Groups of the Council. As Deputy Head of Mission in Athens, from August 2001 to August 2005, she dealt directly with political, press, consular, cultural, security and personnel issues, including the supervision of the participation of the Italian Authorities at the events related to the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
Previously, in Rome, in her secondment to the Office of the Diplomatic Advisor to the President of the Council of Ministers, from January 1999 to July 2011, she covered the Western Balkans during the war in Kosovo, economic and financial topics on the agenda of international organizations and the coordination for the Italian Presidency of G7/G8 (2001). She also assisted three successive Presidents of the Council of Ministers in their bilateral relations with European countries and in their preparation of EU meetings. From December 1996 to December 1998, she was Political Counselor in Belgrade, in charge of maintaining contacts with Serbs and Kosovars in the period immediately preceding the war in Kosovo. In 1995 and in 1996 she served as Deputy Head of Financial Coordination at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reporting directly to the Director General for Economic Affairs, and as Head of the Unit for Culture and Regions, reporting directly to the Director General for Cultural Relations.
In her early years in the diplomatic service, Ambassador Franchini was Head of the Office of the Director General for Human Resources and subsequently First Vice Consul at the Consulate General of Italy in New York, with responsibilities in the political sector and for cultural, educational and maritime issues. In New York, she also served in the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations, as Deputy Representative in the Special Political Commission during the session of the General Assembly. Her career was interrupted for family reasons during various years, when she lived in Belgrade (April 1983-March 1993), Moscow (April 1985-July 1989) and Washington (July 1989-July 1993) as Ambassador’s wife.
She graduated with full marks in Political Sciences – International Relations branch, at the “Cesare Alfieri” Faculty of the University of Florence (n.1 graduate of her academic year), was researcher at the Law Department of the European Institute in Florence and obtained the Master in International Public Policy at John Hopkins University-School of Advanced International Studies, in Washington DC.
Foreign languages: fluent in English, French and Greek; good knowledge of Spanish, Russian and Serbo-Croatian.
She was born in Ancona and is married to Michael E. Sherifis, retired Ambassador of the Republic of Cyprus.