Roberta Metsola

Roberta Metsola MEP
President of the European Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office 18 January 2022 Acting: 11 January 2022 – 18 January 2022
Vice President	Othmar Karas
Preceded by	David Sassoli
First Vice-President of the European Parliament
In office 12 November 2020 – 18 January 2022
President	David Sassoli
Preceded by	Mairead McGuinness
Succeeded by	Othmar Karas
Member of the European Parliament for Malta
Incumbent
Assumed office 24 April 2013
Preceded by	Simon Busuttil
Personal details
Born	Roberta Tedesco Triccas[1] (1979-01-18) 18 January 1979 (age 43) Malta
Citizenship	Maltese
Political party	Nationalist Party
Other political affiliations	European People's Party
Spouse(s)	Ukko Metsola ​ (m. 2005)​
Children	4
Education	University of Malta College of Europe

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Video Introduction (English) / (Maltese)

Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas (Maltese pronunciation: [ɹɔˈbɝta ˈmɛtsɔla]; born 18 January 1979) is a Maltese politician serving as President of the European Parliament since January 2022.^[2]

Metsola was first elected to as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2013, and became the First Vice-President of the European Parliament in November 2020.^[3] Metsola was elected as President of the European Parliament on 18 January 2022,^[2] becoming the youngest ever President,^[4] the first Maltese person to hold the office, and the first woman President since 2002.^[5]

Biography[]

The Tedesco Triccas family stems from Swieqi^[6][7] near St. Julian's, Malta, and Roberta grew up with her parents and two sisters^[8] in Gżira.^[9] She studied at St Joseph School in Sliema, St Aloysius' College sixth form, and she graduated in law from the University of Malta in 2003^[9] and obtained a diploma in European studies from the College of Europe in Bruges in 2004.^[10]

Roberta Tedesco Triccas and her Finnish husband Ukko Metsola (National Coalition Party) met in 1999 and married in October 2005.^[11] Together, they have four sons.^[12] They both ran for the 2009 European Parliament election, becoming the first married couple to run in the same European Parliament election from two different member states.^[13]

Metsola has been active since youth within Malta's Partit Nazzjonalista (PN), serving within the party's international secretariat and volunteering with the PN's election arm ELCOM.^[14][6] In her student years, Metsola formed part of the SDM (Studenti Demokristjani Maltin), KNZ (The National Youth Council) and MŻPN (Moviment Żgħażagħ Partit Nazzjonalista), before being elected as Secretary General of the European Democrat Students (EDS), the student branch of the EPP, as well as to posts within the European Youth Forum (YFJ).^[6][14]

In 2002, at 23 years, she was elected as one of the two vice-presidents of the executive board of the Youth Convention on the Future of Europe,^[15] and the following year she actively campaigned with the PN for a Yes vote in the 2003 EU membership referendum.^[10]

Following her engagement in the EU referendum campaign, 25 years old Metsola was encouraged by Malta's Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi^[6] to run for the 2004 European elections as a candidate for the Nationalist Party.^[9] She was not elected.

In October 2004 Metsola joined the Permanent Representation of Malta to the European Union in Brussels, headed by Richard Cachia Caruana, where she worked for 8 years as legal and judicial cooperation attaché, also participating for Malta in the negotiations of the Lisbon Treaty and working on files such as the set-up of the European Asylum Support Office in Malta.^[10][14]

She run again for the 2009 European elections,^[16] without being elected.^[17]

In 2013-2014 Metsola briefly served as legal advisor to the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton.^[18]

Member of the European Parliament[]

Metsola asks a question in 2019 hearings for the Von der Leyen Commission

On 24 April 2013 Metsola successfully contested the casual election to fill in the vacated seat of Simon Busuttil, becoming one of Malta's first female Members of the European Parliament.^[19] In the Parliament, she sits as a member of the European People's Party Group (EPP).^[20]

Following her re-election at the 2014 elections, Metsola was elected as a vice-chair of the Committee on Petitions (PETI) in July 2014.^[21] In addition, she served as a member of a number of committees and delegations.^[22] She also joined the parliamentary intergroup on children's rights.^[23] Metsola was further re-elected at the 2019 elections; in this legislature she has followed closely the party line, voting together the EPP delegation in over 90% of the cases.^[18]

In 2014 Metsola led the EPP representation in LIBE in the work on the non-binding EU roadmap against homophobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, whose rapporteur was Green MEP Ulrike Lunacek.^[24] She was also the parliament's rapporteur on the European Border and Coastguard Regulation in 2019 and was co-rapporteur on an anti-SLAPP report in 2021.^[10]

Metsola also co-authored a non-binding report on the European migrant crisis in 2016, aimed at establish a "binding and mandatory legislative approach" on resettlement and new EU-wide "readmission" agreements which should take precedence over bilateral ones between EU and non-EU countries.^[25]

From 2016 until 2017, Metsola was part of the Parliament's Committee of Inquiry into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion (PANA) that investigated the Panama Papers revelations and tax avoidance schemes more broadly.^[22]

Within the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), where she chaired the EPP representation between January 2017 and 2020,^[10] she has been part of the Rule of Law Monitoring Group (ROLMG) since 2018.^[26]

In 2019, during the controversies following the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, she famously refused to shake hands with Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat at a meeting with the Members of European Parliament from Malta. "If he thinks he can try to brush off responsibility he is sorely mistaken. Get out now, before you do irreparable damage to the country", she wrote.^[10] In 2020 Metsola considered contesting the leadership of Partit Nazzjonalista, but finally decided against it. "Some ceilings need a few more cracks before they can be smashed through", she stated. The post was later filled by Bernard Grech.^[10]

In October 2020, in the discussion in LIBE on a parliamentary resolution on "the rule of law and fundamental rights in Bulgaria",^[27][28] Metsola tabled amendments^[29] on behalf of the EPP which were widely interpreting at shielding Bulgaria's EPP government from criticism, including by proposing to remove references to Venice Commission findings and to the misuse of EU funds and high-level corruption allegations directly involving Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. Other amendments, which she later withdrawn, also alleged that a gambling boss had been financing the street protest movement. This caused outrage in Bulgaria, leading to Metsola's social media accounts being flooded by protest messages, including threats and mysoginy.^[30][31] The EPP amendments were finally defeated, and the resolution was adopted as it had been originally proposed.^[32]

In November 2020, Metsola was elected as First Vice-President of the European Parliament, replacing Mairead McGuinness who had become European Commissioner. She was the first Maltese MEP to become a vice-president.^[33]

President of the European Parliament[]

In November 2021, Metsola was chosen as EPP candidate to succeed David Sassoli as President of the European Parliament on the expiry of his term as president in January 2022.^[34] Sassoli had been hospitalised with pneumonia in September 2021^[35] and in December announced that he would not seek a second term as president, making Metsola his likely successor.^[36] Following further hospitalisation, Sassoli died on 11 January 2022,^[37] one week before the end of his term.^[35] On Sassoli's death, Metsola became the acting President of the European Parliament.^[38]

Metsola in the European Parliament during her election in January 2022

On 18 January 2022, on her 43rd birthday, Metsola was elected President of the European Parliament for a two-and-a-half year term. She was elected in the first round of voting, receiving an absolute majority of 458 votes out of the 690 cast.^[2] As the candidate of the EPP, she was also supported by the S&D and Renew Europe parliamentary groups, after the three groups reached an agreement on the election of the President and the vice-presidents and legislative priorities for the second half of the Parliament's term.^[39] On her election, Metsola became the youngest ever President,^[4] the first Maltese person to hold the office, and the first woman President since 2002 (and only third woman president ever).^[5]

Metsola had consistently voted for pro-life resolutions,^[40] and from the beginning of her tenure, she faced questions over her opposition to abortion, which is legal in every EU member state, except Malta.^[41] She once said in a 2015 statement that she was "categorically against abortion."^[42] On her election as President of the European Parliament, she stated that during her tenure, she will represent the Parliament's position, which recognises safe access to abortion as a human right.^[43]

Other activities[]

• Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies, Member of the Executive Board^[44]
• Friends of Europe, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2020)^[45]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Roberta Metsola.

• Official website
• Personal profile of Roberta Metsola in the European Parliament's database of members