Diplomat magazine Award winner Federico Bianchi returns to the UK as the EU’s new head of press and information to the UK after Brexit. Italian diplomat Bianchi — who is currently the deputy director for the Mediterranean and a Brexit adviser at the Italian foreign ministry in Rome — will start work in London on 1 February 2020, the day after the United Kingdom leaves the EU.

Bianchi will report directly to newly appointed EU Ambassador to the UK João Vale de Almeida. The new EU delegation will be based in the premises where the European Commission’s office (that closes on Friday) has been located for the past 25 years.

Before his last appointment in Rome, Bianchi spent five years (2014-19) in London as the chief spokesperson for the Italian Embassy. He won the Diplomat magazine Young Diplomat of the Year Award in 2018. He was also formerly the head of the Diplomatic Press Attaches in London (DPAAL).  Bianchi has previously worked in Brussels as a parliamentary assistant and at the EU’s directorate at the British Foreign Office in London.