European customs authority, the ADM joins the board with Andrea Mazzella

A place in the control room of the new European Customs Authority. Andrea Mazzella, plenipotentiary minister and director of International Relations of the Customs and Monopolies Agency, has been appointed member of the Management Board of the body called to lead the implementation of the reform of the Customs Union. The first meeting will be held on 19 November in Lille.

The French city was chosen in March as the seat of the Authority at the end of the race between nine candidates, including Rome. The establishment of the EU Customs Authority was agreed on 26 March by the Council and the European Parliament as part of the revision of the customs framework proposed by the Commission in May 2023. The Authority, which when fully operational will have around 285 employees, will coordinate the risk analysis at EU level on the import and export data that will flow into the new European digital customs centre, of which it will also take care of the development and management.

A career diplomat, Mazzella has worked on the topics of international relations, economic security, innovative technologies and the protection of strategic infrastructures. At the Farnesina he represented the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Golden Power Committee of Palazzo Chigi, dealing with national security and the protection of strategic assets, and was part of the secretariats of the undersecretaries Rino Serri and Alfredo Mantica and, more recently, of the deputy minister Edmondo Cirielli.

He was Italian ambassador to the Republic of Congo and ambassador and special government envoy to Somalia, where he followed the path that led to the reopening of the embassy in Mogadishu. At the ministry he then directed the office for the Horn of Africa and that for Innovation, start-ups and space, supporting the participation of Italian companies and consortia in international technological programs and accelerators.