Antonio Tajani was appointed Vice President of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in October 2022. He graduated in Law from La Sapienza University of Rome and was an officer in the Italian Air Force.  He began his career as a journalist in 1980 and worked as a parliamentary reporter, a Rai GR1 news presenter and lead Rome editor of “Il Giornale”. He was also a special correspondent in Lebanon, the Soviet Union and Somalia. He is National Secretary of Forza Italia, which he co-founded.  In 1994 he was elected for the first time to the European Parliament, where he served as President from 2017 to 2019. He also served at the European Commission from 2008 to 2014, as Commissioner for Trasports and then Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship and Vice President. He has also been Chair of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and of the Conference of Committee Chairs of the European Parliament.