Italy’s ex-Economy minister Tommaso Padoa Schioppa has died of infarction during a supper with friends in Rome, last night. The author of popular economic terms such as “tesoretto” (egg nest) and “bamboccioni” (mama’s boys) was 70.

He suffered a massive heart attack during a reception with about one hundred of his friend at Palazzo Sacchetti, on via Giulia in Roma. He just died in front of his friends.

Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa was banker, economist, Italy’s former Minister for Economy and Finance (2006-2008) and former member of executive board of European central Bank. He had been serving as economics advisor to Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou.

Last month, Padoa-Schioppa, speaking at a conference of the Hellenic-American Chamber of Commerce in Athens, estimated that 10 to 15 years will be required in order to complete the reconstruction of the Greek economy. He also stressed the risks that can challenge the Greek economy in the following years, not matter how good the governmental plans are.

Prime Minister George Papandreou on Sunday expressed his great sorrow at the sudden death of economist Tommaso Padoa Schioppa in Rome on Saturday night. The 70-year-old economist, hailed as one of the intellectual architects of the euro, had been enlisted by Papandreou as his advisor in tackling Greece's spiralling debt crisis.

Schioppa was at a dinner when he started to feel unwell on Saturday night. He rushed to a hospital in Rome but doctors were unable to help him, pronouncing his death as a result of a massive heart attack.

"He was an exceptional person and a great scientist," Papandreou said in a statement, hailing the Italian economist's priceless contribution to the creation and course of the euro and describing him as "a great European".