Roberto Balzaretti was born in 1965 in Mendrisio and is a citizen of Ligornetto, he obtained a doctorate in law from the University of Bern and in 1991 he began his activity at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). After his training in Bern and the Swiss Mission to the European Community in Brussels, he worked for the Directorate of International Law in Bern before being transferred to the Swiss embassy in Washington in 1997 and promoted to the rank of embassy counselor. In 1999 he returned to the Directorate of International Law and was appointed Head of the Department of International Law, Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law in 2003.
In 2004 Balzaretti was appointed diplomatic advisor and head of cabinet in the general staff of the head of the DFA department with the title of ambassador. In 2008 he worked for eight months in the private sector at Credit Suisse Bank. In December 2008 he returned to the departmental ranks as Secretary General of the FDFA, assigned to the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva as Special Representative for the Human Rights Council. In the same year he was appointed Secretary General of the FDFA by the Federal Council.
From 2012 to 2016, Balzaretti led Switzerland’s mission to the EU in Brussels. From 2016 to 2018 he was head of the International Law Directorate and legal advisor to the FDFA. In February 2018 he was appointed by the Federal Council as director of European affairs and coordinator of all negotiations with the EU with the title of Secretary of State. Since 2024 he has been the new Ambassador of Switzerland to the Italian Republic