Rodrigo Ballester 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 in the College of Europe for two years before moving into the private practice as a lawyer in the American law firm Latham and Watkins. He then moved to the European Parliament where he worked as an adviser for the Spanish Delegation of the European People’s Party (Partido Popular) in the field of Legal Affairs, Internal Market and Home Affairs. In 2008, he joined the European Commission, first in DG Justice, and as from 2011, in DG Home Affairs where he was in charge of the external dimension of the EU’s migration policy in Morocco and Sub Saharan Africa. He is as from November 2014 a member of the Cabinet of Commissioner Navracsics. He is in charge of primary and secondary education and follows with a specific interest the role of education to counter violent radicalisation. Since 2010, he is an invited professor in the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. He is fluent in Spanish, French and English and has a good command of German and Italian.