Lapo Pistelli was born in Florence on June 20, 1964. Married, he has three children.
Member of the Italian Parliament (Chamber of Deputies), where he is a member of the Foreign and EU Affair Committee, he is Head of the Foreign Department of the Democratic Party.
Before, he has been member of the Italian Parliament (1996-2004) and of the European Parliament (2004-2008).
A lecturer at Stanford University and at Florence University, he holds a degree in international law. He has been a journalist since 1991. He founded and directed from 1987 to 1995 the “Centro Toscano di Documentazione Politica”, an association for political and administrative training, and he has been director of the Schede and Centocittà magazines.
Pistelli was city councilman of Florence (1985-1990) and chairman of the Education Committee (1992-1995). He was Head of the Foreign Office of DC (Christian Democrats) Youth Movement from 1987 to 1991. In 1994 he became regional Secretary and counsellor to the national office of DC and later member of the Secretariat of the Italian Popular Party (1994-1996).
Pistelli was elected to Italian Parliament for the 1996 and 2001 legislatures (both with 64%), where he has been a member of the Foreign and EU Affair Committee and member of the Italian Delegation to the OSCE. Since 2002 he has been Head of the Foreign Department of the “Democrazia è Libertà – La Margherita” Party, and since 2004 he has been a member of the Presidency of the Margherita Party.
He was elected member of the European Parliament in June 2004 with 80,382 votes. He leaded the Margherita Party group (2004-2007), and he has been a member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, a stand-in member of the Foreign Affairs and Constitutional Affairs Committees and Chairman of the Delegation for relations with South Africa.
At the European Parliament he has been vice-president of the ALDE (Alliance of Liberal and Democrats in Europe) Group and one of the founders of the European Democratic Party.
Pistelli is member of the Democratic Party’s Executive Board, heading the Foreign Department.
He is member of the boards of IAI (International Affairs Institute) and IPALMO (Insititute for Relations between Italy and Africa, Latin America and the Middle and Far East). In 2003 he founded a cultural association, INPUT.
His most recent book is “America Take Away: quanta America è entrata in noi, quanto ne potrebbe arrivare”.
