Died an adviser to George Papandreou, Tommazo Padoa Skiopa

Tommazo Padoa Skiopa, the Italian adviser to Prime Minister George Papandreou, died yesterday evening in Rome. Skiopa, seventy years, felt unwell during dinner at the mansion Sakketti the Eternal City. "Excuse me, but I'm not so good," he told his friends, with whom he had met to exchange Christmas greetings. The transfer of the hospital Santo Spirito in chassis was futile. Sudden heart attack, the diagnosis of doctors. Born in Belluno in northern Italy, in 1940, Skiopa considered one of the most prestigious economists in the country. Analyst of "Corriere Della Sera" newspaper, he studied at the University of Milan Bokkoni, specializing in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It now stress the Italian commentators, has always been a staunch philanthropist, starting with the period during which took over the general direction of monetary and economic affairs of the then EEC - in 1979 - in close cooperation with the Chemout Schmidt and Valery Giscard d'Estaing. In 1984, Skiopa, became vice president of Bank of Italy, headed by then, the future President of the Republic, Carlo Champi Atzelio. A close associate of Jacques Delors, succeeded former head of the European Commission, as president of the foundation bearing the name. In 1998, he became a member of the First Council of the European Central Bank, in seven years. From 2006 to 2008, he served as finance minister, the second center-left government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi. The Italian media reported and the most recent professional responsibility, the role of adviser to Prime Minister George Papandreou, the last four months. "Greece will be able to overcome the crisis, subject to strictly implement the reform agenda has been prepared," he said recently, an Italian economist.