Ilkka Saarilahti holds degrees in Arts, Economics, and Political Sciences from the University of Helsinki, the College of Europe in Bruges and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration in Strasbourg. He is a Fellow of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute in Florence. His PhD deals with budgeting and financial management reform issues in the European Union. He has published several books and articles on EU Public Finances and, besides Universities, he has lectured for many years at the European institutions in Brussels and Luxembourg, at the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) in Maastricht, and at the European Administrative School in Brussels.