H.E. Fontana was appointed Ambassador of the European Union to the United Arab Emirates in July 2019. In 2020, Ambassador Fontana was appointed as European Union Commissioner-General for EXPO 2020 Dubai.

From 2015-2019, H.E. Andrea Fontana served as the EU Ambassador to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Prior to his ambassadorship positions, Mr Fontana served as Head of Unit in the European Commission department dealing with the Eastern Neighbourhood (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine). For five years, he contributed to bringing Eastern Partnership countries closer to the EU, by developing comprehensive co-operation programmes and implementing Association Agreements including deep and comprehensive free trade areas.

Ambassador Fontana was also Head of the Economic Reforms Section at the EU Delegation to Russia, and Head of the Economic Cooperation Section at the EU Delegation to Syria, and was desk officer for bilateral relations with Palestine at the European Commission.

H.E. Ambassador Fontana holds a master’s degree in economics from Bocconi University (Milan) where he specialised in transition economics with a thesis on the economic transition of Russia. He completed his studies with courses at Cologne University (Germany), the London School of Economics (UK), the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (USA) and the Centre for Creative Leadership (Belgium).