Degree in Law, La Sapienza University. Officer, Italian Air Force. Professional journalist and parliamentary journalist. Editor, Italian weekly Il Settimanale. Presenter, RAI 1 radio news programme. Head, Rome editorial office, Italian daily Il Giornale. Special correspondent, Lebanon, the Soviet Union and Somalia. One of the signatories of the founding act of Forza Italia. 1999-2008, Head, Forza Italia delegation, European Parliament. Spokesman for the President of the Italian Council of Ministers during the first Berlusconi Government. 1994, 1999 and 2004, elected as Member of the European Parliament. Member, Convention on the Future of Europe. Member of the Bureau of the Group of the European People's Party. Vice-Chair, European People's Party, elected at the EPP Congress in Estoril in 2002, re-elected at the EPP Congress in Rome in 2006 and re-elected again at the EPP Congress in Bonn in 2009. May 2008 to Feb. 2010, European Commission's Vice-President and Commissioner in charge of Transport; since Feb. 2010, European Commission Vice-President and Commissioner in charge of Industry and Entrepreneurship.