MOSCOW, October 31 (RIA Novosti) — EU's next High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, due to assume office on Saturday, was born on June 16, 1973, in Rome.
She studied political science at Rome's Sapienza University and later continued her studies at the Research Institute for the Arab and Mediterranean World (IREMAM) in France, where she wrote a thesis on political Islam.
In the 1990s, Mogherini participated in Italian and European anti-racism and anti-xenophobia campaigns as a volunteer.
In later years, she was a member of the Board of the European Youth Forum, a deputy chair of the European Community Organization of Socialist Youth (ECOSY), and a member of the Secretariat of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization's Youth Forum.
In 2001, Mogherini became a member of the National Council of the newly-formed Italian social-democratic party, Democrats of the Left (DS), and later served on its Political Committee.
In 2003, she started working at the DS Foreign Affairs Section, where she oversaw relations with Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East.
In 2007, she joined Italy's Democratic Party (PD).
In 2008, Mogherini was elected to the Italian Parliament's Chamber of Deputies from the Veneto constituency and became Secretary of the Chamber of Deputies' Defense Committee and a member of the Italian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
In February 2013, she was re-elected from the Emilia-Romagna constituency and headed the Italian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of NATO.
In February 2014, she became Italy's Minister of Foreign Affairs.
On August 30, Mogherini was elected High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, a post she will hold from November 1, 2014, to October 31, 2019.
Federica Mogherini speaks fluent English, French and she also speaks Spanish.
She is married and has two daughters.