Roberta Metsola was elected President of the European Parliament in January 2022.
She was first elected to the European Parliament in 2013, becoming one of Malta’s first female Members of the European Parliament. Metsola was re-elected in 2014 and then again in 2019.
In 2020, she was elected as the First Vice-President of the European Parliament, becoming the first Maltese national to hold the post. She was responsible for the European Parliament’s relations with national parliaments and for the Parliament’s participation in interreligious and non-confessional dialogue (Article 17 TFEU).
Within the European Parliament, President Metsola was the EPP Group’s Coordinator in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs between January 2017 and 2020. President Metsola was the Parliament’s rapporteur on the European Border and Coastguard Regulation in 2019. She also co-authored the Parliament’s own-initiative report on the need to protect journalists in the European Union from Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation.
Professionally, she is a lawyer who has specialised in European law and politics.
Prior to her election as a MEP, President Metsola served within the Permanent Representation of Malta to the European Union and later as the legal advisor to the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. In her student years, she campaigned actively for Malta’s EU membership and was active in various organisations, acting as the Secretary-General for the European Democrat Student organisation between 2002 and 2003.
She completed an Erasmus exchange in France and graduated from the University of Malta and the College of Europe in Bruges.
Born in 1979, Roberta Metsola is married to Ukko Metsola and is the mother of four boys.
(Photo Credit: Therese Debono)
