Experts & Staff

Silvia Francescon

ECFR Alumni · Head, ECFR Rome Office

Areas of expertise

International relations, global governance, G8 and G20, environment and development

Languages

Italian and English

Biography

Silvia Francescon is the head of the Rome office of the European Council on Foreign Relations. Her topics of focus include global governance, the G8 and G20, and international development. 

Before joining ECFR, Franceson was deputy head of the G8-G20 Sherpa office at the Italian Prime Minister’s Office. She was in charge of co-ordinating the Prime Minister and Sherpa’s G8 and G20 policy dossiers and bilaterals. She also served the United Nations as Co-ordinator of the Millennium Campaign in Italy and is a former negotiator of international and European agreements for the Italian Ministry for the Environment. Previously, Franceson worked at the OECD (Environment Directorate), the WTO (Legal Affairs Division), and the European Commission (DG Agriculture). She was also a research fellow in the International Law Departments of the Universities of Leiden (NL) and Ferrara (Italy). She holds a Masters in International Environmental Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, London) and graduated cum laude in International Law from the University of Ferrara, where she was awarded of the title of “cultore della materia” in International Law.

The view from the capitals: the EU budget summit

  • Dimitar Bechev, Silvia Francescon, Ulrike Guérot, Thomas Klau, Mark Leonard, Jonas Parello-Plesner, José Ignacio Torreblanca
  • Commentary
  • Views from the Capitals

On Thursday EU leaders will meet in Brussels to discuss the EU budget for the next seven years. ECFR experts in Spain, the UK, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany and Italy tell us what to expect.   

Reinventing Europe: Italy, a country in receivership

  • Marco de Andreis, Silvia Francescon
  • Commentary

As part of the ‘Reinvention of Europe’ project, ECFR is publishing a series of papers on the national debates within EU member states about the crisis and the future direction of Europe. The third paper in the series examines the situation in Italy.  

In the media