Gianluca Spinaci

Gianluca Spinaci is the Green Deal Advisor at the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) since 2020. With a career spanning over 30 years, he has worked at local, regional, and national government levels, as well as in the EU Institutions.

From 2013-2020, Gianluca was Head of Cabinet of the Secretary-General of the CoR, an assembly of Mayors and Regional Presidents representing over 90.000 municipalities and around 250 regions from all 27 EU Member States. Between 2010 and 2012, he served as the CoR’s Advisor to the President on climate, energy and environment, partnering with the European Commission for the launch of the Covenant of Mayors on Climate and Energy, the European Green Capital initiative, and the CoR’s early involvement in the UN Conference of Parties on Combatting Climate Change and its cooperation with the US Conference of Mayors.

Before moving to Brussels, Gianluca worked extensively on sustainability and cooperation projects. At the Austrian Federal Chancellery in Vienna and the European Commission’s DG REGIO, he was instrumental in establishing the INTERREG cross-border platform with the Member States joining the EU in 2004. Earlier, he managed EU cohesion policy programs in his native region, Regione Marche in Italy, for over four years. Gianluca also worked with a local consortium of public utilities, managing water and energy infrastructure and services in his rural community. 

Gianluca holds a PhD in Local and Regional Law, a MSc in European Law and an MBA. He authored numerous publications on EU affairs and local government, lectured at universities including Barcelona, Lund, Maastricht, and George Washington University, and has extensive experience with international projects.

Notably, Gianluca was among the first Erasmus students, an experience he credits as life-changing, moving from his rural university to London.

As a volunteer, he served as a trained firefighter with the national brigade.