Tiziano Balmelli was born in Lugano, in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. He holds a PhD in Law from the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) and a Master of Arts in Political and Administrative European Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges.
He published his doctorate thesis in 2001 on the financing of political parties and electoral campaigns: in a comparative study covering several countries he analyzed the links with constitutional and democratic issues as well as with corruption.
From 1996 to 2002 he worked in the academic field dealing, in particular, with constitutional issues related to the functioning of democracy, federalism, good governance and corruption.
In 2002, he entered the Diplomatic Service of the Swiss Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As a diplomat he has been posted in India from 2002 to 2003 and has then served from 2004 to 2007 in the Directorate of International Law assisting the Deputy Legal Advisor of the Ministry. After having served two years as the Deputy Head of the Swiss Embassy in Kosovo (2008-2010), he is now in charge of Political and Legal Affairs within the Swiss Embassy in Rome.
As a diplomat, he has also represented Switzerland in several international conferences and fora related to the fight against corruption; in particular, he has been part of the Swiss delegation which has negotiated the UN Convention against corruption.
In his personal capacity, he is regularly invited by institutional, academic, media and civil society actors in Switzerland and abroad as an expert for issues related to the financing of political parties, democracy and corruption. On these topics, he has also published various articles and books.
Besides the diplomatic career, he used to lecture on international law at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland).
He speaks Italian, French, English, German, and Spanish.
See also: www.chez.com/tiziano (no longer updated)
(c) Tiziano Balmelli, Lugano / Insubria - Contact: tiziano.balmelli (at) gmail.com