Alessandro Rotta passes away: a man of “granitic and irreproachable intellectual honesty”

Brussels – Alessandro Rotta, Chief of Staff to the European Union Special Representative for the South Caucasus, passed away last week in The Hague, where he had lived for several years with his family: Elisabetta, his wife, and Livia, his daughter, going back and forth to Brussels each week.

Rotta, only 51 years old, was killed by a quick and painful illness. His friends remember him as a man who “changed an incredible number of homes, of countries, always managing to create a ‘Home,’ to mark his presence with the ability to unite people and places, to create new networks.” He took his Verona origin around Europe, always curious to discover new cultures, films, books, and beauties. He always looked for and found someone to involve, to share his discoveries with, which thus became the heritage of his community. He always did it with great enthusiasm, with joy, smiling whenever possible, always carrying his Veneto with his noticeable accent and the intimate pleasure of interspersing it with a few words in dialect.

Those who knew him well remember his “granitic and unimpeachable intellectual honesty” and how he got “irritated at sloppiness and quackery that drove him crazy.”

Alessandro Rotta was passionate about studying international relations, specializing in conflict prevention and negotiation. He began his career at the Center for the Study of International Politics (CeSPI) in Rome from 2000 to 2006. Rotta helped initiate new strands of research, particularly in the Balkan area, where he traveled countless times and lived for many years. He moved to the Stability Pact in Brussels, applying his knowledge as a policy adviser engaged in facilitating post-war peace-building processes in the Balkan area and supporting European strategies for stabilizing the region.

After a long period working on site with the European Eulex mission to restore the rule of law in Kosovo and the Balkans, Rotta moved to The Hague as part of the High Commissioner for Minorities’ team at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which brings together 57 countries to ensure dialogue, peace, and democracy.

Since last June, after serving as its political adviser, Rotta became Chief of Staff to the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus in Brussels.