Fabrizio Barca (born 8 March 1954) is an Italian senior civil servant and politician, who served as a state minister without portfolio for territorial cohesion in the Monti cabinet from 2011 to 2013.

Early life and education

Barca was born in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, the son of a senior member of the old Italian Communist Party (PCI). He is a graduate of

La Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a public research university located in Rome, Ita ...

. Barca obtained a

MPhil The Master of Philosophy (MPhil; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. In the United States, an MPhil typically includes a taught portion and a significant research portion, during which a thesis project is conducted under supervision. An MPhil m ...

in economics from

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

in 1979. He also carried out research activities at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1989 to 1990 and at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1994.

Career

Barca is a lecturer in corporate finance and Italian economy history. He worked as a lecturer at the universities of

Bocconi Bocconi University ( it, Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, ) is a private university in Milan, Italy. Bocconi provides education in the fields of economics, finance, law, management, political science, public administration and computer sci ...

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

, Paris (SPO),

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

. Barca often taught economic development, corporate finance and Italian economic history at these universities. He carried out an interesting study on the

Mezzogiorno Southern Italy ( it, Sud Italia or ) also known as ''Meridione'' or ''Mezzogiorno'' (), is a macroregion A macroregion is a geopolitical subdivision that encompasses several traditionally or politically defined regions or countries. The meaning ...

. Barca's public posts included the division chief at the research department of the Bank of Italy, chief of the department of development and cohesion policies at the treasury and the president of

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...

's territorial policies committee (1999). During his tenure at the Italian treasury, he worked with

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (; 9 December 1920 – 16 September 2016) was an Italian politician and banker who was the prime minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and the president of Italy from 1999 to 2006. Biography Education Ciampi was born i ...

, then treasure minister. In fact, Ciampi appointed Barca to this position. The reason for his appointment was his being part of young leading Italian economists in the 1990s and his reputation which he had gained during his tenure at the Bank of Italy. He worked as a special advisor to the European Union commissioner responsible for regional policy. In April 2009, he developed an independent report for

the European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

, entitled ''An agenda for a reformed cohesion policy''. In addition, Barca was the director of the department of development policies in the ministry of economy and finance until his appointment as minister in 2011. On 16 November 2011, he was appointed minister of territorial cohesion to the cabinet led by prime minister

Mario Monti Mario Monti, (born 19 March 1943) is an Italian economist and academic who served as the Prime Minister of Italy from 2011 to 2013, leading a technocratic government in the wake of the Italian debt crisis. Monti served as a European Commiss ...

. In July 2012, Barca endorsed and launched a new website that was Italy's first national web portal concerning the implementation of investments covering the period of 2007-2013 by regions and state central administrations along with cohesion policy resources. All data therein were published as

open data Open data is data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shared by anyone for any purpose. Open data is licensed under an open license. The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open(-source)" movements ...

, which makes it Italy's largest open data project. Barca's tenure ended on 28 April 2013, and he was succeeded by

Carlo Trigilia Carlo Trigilia (born 18 June 1951) is an Italian academic and politician, who served as minister for territorial cohesion from 28 April 2013 to February 2014. He is a professor emeritus in economic sociology at the University of Florence. Early ...

in the post. Just before leaving office, Barca joined the Democratic Party in April 2013. Since 2018, he has been coordinator of the Forum Disuguaglianze e Diversità, a civil society organisation aimed at designing public policies and collective actions in order to reduce inequalities and enhance everyone's substantive freedom.

Work

In 2014 Barca published his memoir in which he described the party he desired.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barca, Fabrizio 21st-century Italian politicians 1954 births Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Academic staff of Bocconi University Democratic Party (Italy) politicians Government ministers of Italy Italian economists Living people Politicians from Turin Sapienza University of Rome alumni Academic staff of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia Academic staff of the University of Parma Academic staff of the University of Rome Tor Vergata Academic staff of the University of Siena