Rodrigo Ballester

Rodrigo Ballester is the head of the Center for European Studies at MCC.  Rodrigo has extensive work experience (in several policy fields) in European Affairs and a solid horizontal knowledge of the European Union. He is a law graduate from the San Pablo University in Madrid and holds a Master in European Law (LL.M) from the College of Europe. He started his career as an academic assistant at the College of Europe for two years before moving into private practice as a lawyer in the American law firm Latham and Watkins. In the European Parliament he worked as an adviser for the Spanish Delegation of the European People’s Party (Partido Popular) in the fields of legal affairs, internal market, and home affairs. In 2008, he joined the European Commission, first in DG Justice, and transitioned in 2011 to DG Home Affairs where he was in charge of the external dimension of the EU’s migration policy in Morocco and Sub Saharan Africa. Starting in November 2014, he was a member of the Cabinet of Commissioner Navracsics. He was in charge of primary and secondary education and had a specific interest in the role of education to counter violent radicalization. He is an invited professor in the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and is currently employed at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium.