Since May, 1st 2004 he is the Head of the “Financial Market Infrastructure” Unit. This Unit is responsible for ensuring a proper conception and implementation of the regulatory environment for the post-trading area of the EU Financial Markets. Before this appointment he has been a member of the Group of Policy Advisers of the EU Commission President, Prof. Romano Prodi (01-04). Within the Group he was responsible for economic matters in general and in particular the EU budget and economic policy coordination between the Member States.

Before joining the Group of Policy Advisers, he worked first for the Commission's Taxation Department (94-96), then for the Budget Department (96-00), and then in the Cabinet of the Competition Commissioner, Prof. Mario Monti (00-01).

Alongside his work at the Commission he is active in research and teaching. Since 1998 he has been visiting professor at Milan's Bocconi University and a member of the Economic Faculty of ISPI, Milan (Diplomatic School of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and occasional lecturer in many universities across Europe. From 1995 to 1999 he was visiting professor at the Universidad de Belgrano (Buenos Aires) and the Universidad de Cuyo (Mendoza). From 1993 to 1994 he was junior professor at the London School of Economics and visiting professor at the State University of Moscow and St. Petersburg (Russia).

Mario is married to Olga E. Gazina and they have three daughters named Victoria, Caterina and Alexandra.

MAIN and RECENT PUBLICATIONS

· August 2004: (with Wim Moesen), “A note on a “smart” version of the Stability and Growth Pact”, paper presented at the IIPF 2004 Congress.

· June 2004: “L’allargamento dell’Unione Europea: questioni finanziarie, di competitività e di crescita”. l’Industria, Il Mulino (n. 2/2004).

· March 2004 (rapporteur): An Agenda for a Growing Europe: The Sapir Report, Oxford University Press.(also published in Italian by Il Mulino under the title of “Europa, un’agenda per la crescita, il rapporto Sapir”)

· December 2003: Co-editor (with A. Sapir) of “Economic policy-making in the European Union”. Proceedings of the first four meetings of the Group of Economic Analysis, Luxembourg, OPOCE.

· May 2003 (with Marco Buti), Towards a European Budgetary System, EUI Working Papers RSC 2003/8.

· Nov. 2002 (with Sylvie Goulard) "Un financement plus démocratique du budget européen: Un défi pour la Convention Européenne". Revue Française de finance publique.

· Nov. 2000, "La Finanza Europea", Carocci Editore, Rome.