Simon Busuttil (born 20 March 1969) is the Secretary General of the EPP Group (European People's Party) in the European Parliament. Formerly, he was Leader of the Opposition. and Leader of the Nationalist Party in Malta and a Member of the European Parliament for Malta.
Education
Busuttil, who is from Lija, graduated as Doctor of Laws (University of Malta, 1993), MA in European Studies (University of Sussex, 1994) and Magister Juris in International Law (University of Malta, 1995). As a student he was President of the Maltese Christian Democrat Students, SDM (1989–91), Student Representative on the Senate of the University of Malta (1991–92) and International Secretary of the Maltese National Youth Council (1992).
Career
Busuttil's career is mostly linked with EU affairs as well as with his parliamentary roles in the European Parliament and in the national Parliament in Malta. In 1999, Busuttil was appointed Head of the Malta-EU Information Centre (MIC) and led Malta's public awareness campaign ahead of the 2003 EU membership referendum. At the same time he was also a member of Malta's Core Negotiating Group (negotiating Malta's membership in the EU) and the Malta-EU Steering and Action Committee (MEUSAC) in 1999.
Member of the European Parliament
In 2004, Busuttil was elected as an MEP with the Nationalist Party in the election for the European Parliament netting the largest number of personal preference votes, 58,899 votes. He was the first Maltese MEP to address the European Parliament on 21 July 2004. He was re-elected to the European Parliament in the 2009 election, again registering the largest vote tally of votes ever, or 68,782 votes.
As an MEP he was a member of the bureau of the European People's Party (EPP) and sat on various committees including the European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control and its Committee on Budgets. But his strongest contribution was within the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee where he was the Coordinator (Spokesperson) for the EPP Group and covered issues that include the sensitive areas of common European immigration and asylum policy.
Deputy Leader of the Nationalist Party and MP
In November 2012, he was elected Deputy Leader of the Nationalist Party following the resignation of Tonio Borg. He was elected an MP in the 2013 general election.
Leader of the Nationalist Party and Leader of the Opposition
Immediately after the elections, incumbent Leader Lawrence Gonzi announced that he would not be seeking re-election for the role of leader of the Nationalist Party. Busuttil was one of four candidates running for leadership along with Mario De Marco, Raymond Bugeja and Francis Zammit Dimech. On 4 May 2013, at the first round of voting, Busuttil obtained 50.3% of the votes while Mario De Marco obtained 38.5% and conceded the race, leaving Busuttil de facto leader elect. A further vote was taken on 8 May in order for him to officially receive 2/3 of the votes, the threshold required by the election rules. Simon Busuttil was confirmed Leader having exceeded 90% of the votes cast. As leader of the opposition, Busuttil also announced his Shadow Cabinet in May 2013.
Busuttil's term as Leader of the PN and of the Opposition was characterised by a his choice to champion the rule of law and the fight against corruption in Malta. He led the Opposition charge against the Labour Government led by Joseph Muscat following the revelations made by Daphne Caruana Galizia and PanamaPapers in February and April 2016 respectively. In April 2017, he published a leaked report that implicated the Chief of Staff in money laundering activities linked to Malta's golden passport scheme. The following month, in May 2017, Busuttil published yet another leaked report and presented evidence of alleged illegal transfers to the tune of €650,000 paid by Keith Schembri to the former Managing Director of The Times of Malta, Adrian Hillman. The revelations increased pressure on the Labour Government and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and eventually led to an early election being called on 1 May 2017. In reaction, Busuttil said that people faced a stark choice between Joseph Muscat's interests and Malta's interest and appealed to voters to 'Vote for Malta'. He claimed that the elections were a matter of trust, not just proposals. He claimed that Muscat called the snap election to evade justice. Busuttil led the General Election campaign based on a platform of the fight against corruption and the importance of Rule of Law.