 On 2 May 2013 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Economic Development in the government of Enrico Letta, and was later confirmed in that post in the cabinet of Letta's successor, Matteo Renzi.On 20 January 2016, Renzi appointed him Italy's Permanent Representative to the European Union, an office he took up on March 21 that year.This appointment was criticised by both the opposition and Italian diplomats, because the office of Permanent Representative had always been held by a diplomat and not by a politician such as Calenda.