Brussels, 20/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - The sudden death in Rome on Saturday night of renowned economist and dedicated European Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, who was director general of the European Commission in the early 1980s, a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 1999 to 2005 and minister of economics in Italy in the second Prodi government (2006-8), has been greeted with much emotion at the European Commission and all other European circles. Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa was 70 years old and died of a heart attack ahead of a dinner he was holding at the Palazzo Sacchetti in via Giulia in Rome, after a visit to the Sistine Chapel. People may pay their respects in a special chamber at Espace Europe, on the ground floor of the offices of the European Commission's and European Parliament's Permanent Representation in Rome.
Until his untimely death, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, was President of the Notre Europe thinktank set up by Jacques Delors and an economic advisor to the Greek government. He started his career at the Bank of Italy, where he was deputy director general for 13 years from 1984 to 1999. During this time, he was seconded to the European Commission.
The president of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, has issued a message: “I have learnt with great sadness of the sudden death of Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, a great European that I remember not only as one of the fathers of the euro, whose creation he supported since 1982, but also as an expert and cultivated economist who, in his role as member of the European Central Bank Executive Board, contributed with professionalism and dedication and in a decisive manner, for the euro to become a reality. Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa represented a unique figure of 'grand commis,' serving with intelligence and loyalty both on a national level, from the Bank of Italy to the Ministry of Finance, and on the European level, from the Commission to the European Central Bank.”
Expressing condolences to Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa's family, Barroso continued: “Europe will always miss his intellectual passion and tenacity that he continued to express at the service of European ideals, as a President of Notre Europe and leader of European Movement.”
The president of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, expressed his sadness and pain in a message addressed to Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa's family, recalling his personal meetings with him and commenting: “We have lost a great European.”
These deep tributes bear witness to the huge appreciation for Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa by leaders such as Romano Prodi, a staunch defender of the euro who was European Commission president when Padoa-Schioppa was at the ECB, and a throng of Italian and European politicians headed by the president of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano. The figures who have paid tribute at his coffin include someone who was at various times Italy's president, prime minister and governor of the Bank of Italy, Azeglio Ciampi, and the current governor of the Bank of Italy, Mario Draghi. The Italian parliament observed a minute's silence on Monday 20 December. There have been messages flooding in from a series of organisations, including the European Federalist Movement, the European Movement, Istituto Affari Internazionali, the IFRS Foundation and this news agency, Agence Europe, which knew and appreciated him in his various European jobs and shares the sadness at his loss. Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa will be buried in Sori, near Genoa, on Wednesday 22 December, which is where his mother's family hails from. (He was born in Belluno, Venetia). (Gp/transl.fl)