As Undersecretary at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation since February 2014, in the Government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Benedetto’s portfolio includes relations with Asia-Pacific countries, Canada and Mexico, supporting the internationalization of Italian companies, and economic and financial matters related to the G8 and the G20.
Benedetto is a member of the Italian Senate, elected in 2013. He has a longstanding career as MP both in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, from 2006 to 2013, and in the European Parliament from 1999 to 2004.
A member of the Transnational Radical Party since 1992, he is a staunch advocate of human rights and fundamental freedoms, of the abolition of the capital punishment, of free market and the European Union. He recently promoted a bill in the Italian Parliament on the legalization of cannabis which is co-sponsored by a vast cross-party group of Italian MPs.
He was Assistant professor for Economics and Agricultural Policies at Università Cattolica, Milan, from 1990 to 1995 and has a degree in economics at Bocconi University.