Lucio Gussetti is a lawyer and Senior manager of the European Union. He is Director and Principal Legal Adviser of the European Commission for Foreign and Security Policy and External Relations. Mr. Gussetti is a former member of the Private Office of the European Commission’s President.
What was your pathway to visiting Yale?
The European Union Institutions have entered for some time into a partnership with the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale for the exchange of Fellows and Senior Fellows. The arrangements provide that the Fellow is part of the European Studies Council, one of the several regional councils located in the Center, and of the Program on European Union Studies within the Council. I was selected by the Commission and by the Center within such agreed path.
I am a senior Manager and Principal Legal Advisor of the European Commission on International Law and on the Relations of the EU with the World. I am joining Yale bringing with me my legal expertise and my long experience on the ground.
What will you be working on when you are at Yale?
I am expected to research and prepare a Report on “A common defence for the European Union, is a new actor in the international arena finally emerging?”. The Report will be handed to my authorities in Brussels upon my return.
How will you be working with Yale students?
I am a practitioner, not a career academic, although I did sporadically teach certain aspects of European Union Law in European Universities during events, seminars, or short-term teaching projects. As far as it is considered useful, I am ready to support the Council with Yale students.
How will you be working with Yale researchers?
My long career and professional profile make me a potentially helpful support to researchers. My possible added value is strategic and counterfactual: in all these years, I have lived on the first line a significant number of events on the international scene. Such experience may complement the academic approach of the researchers and provide them with alternative/complementary viewpoints and strategic setting.
What are you most looking forward to doing or visiting when at Yale?
I am approaching my months at Yale as a personal gamechanger: I would like to enjoy researching, enjoy supporting students and researchers, enjoy my stay with my wife in New Haven. I will take the opportunity of my presence in the US to frequent more often the UN and to travel to Washington.