Roberta Metsola

Biography

The Tedesco Triccas family stems from Swieqi, near St. Julian's, Malta, and she grew up with her father Geoffrey (son of Emmanuel Tedesco and Helen Triccas Dimech), her mother Rita (daughter of Carmelo Bezzina and Francesca Briffa), and her two sisters, Ann and Lisa, in Gżira. She was born in St. Julian's.

Tedesco Triccas has been active since youth within Malta's Nationalist Party (PN), serving within the party's international secretariat and volunteering with the PN's election arm ELCOM.

In 2002, at the age of 23, Tedesco Triccas was elected as one of the two vice-presidents of the executive board of the Youth Convention on the Future of Europe. The following year, she actively campaigned with the PN for a Yes vote in the 2003 Maltese European Union membership referendum. Following her engagement in the European Union referendum campaign, the 25-year-old Tedesco Triccas was encouraged, by Malta's then prime minister Lawrence Gonzi, without being elected. In 2013–2014, she briefly served as legal advisor to the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton.

Education She studied at St Joseph School in Sliema, St Aloysius' College sixth form, graduated in law from the University of Malta in 2003,

Member of the European Parliament

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

Following her re-election at the 2014 European Parliament election in Malta, Metsola was elected as a vice-chair of the Committee on Petitions (PETI) in July 2014. In addition, she served as a member of a number of committees and delegations. She also joined the parliamentary intergroup on children's rights. Metsola was further re-elected at the 2019 European Parliament election in Malta; in this legislature, she closely followed the party line, voting together with the EPP delegation in over 90% of the cases. She was the parliament's rapporteur on the European Border and Coastguard Regulation in 2019 and was co-rapporteur on an anti-SLAPP report in 2021.

Metsola also co-authored a non-binding report on the European migrant crisis in 2016, aimed at establishing 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.

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.

In 2019, during the controversies following the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Metsola famously refused to shake hands with Malta's then-prime minister Joseph Muscat at a meeting with the MEPs from Malta. She wrote: "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." Metsola tabled amendments, on behalf of the EPP, which were widely interpreted as 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 the then prime minister Boyko Borisov. Other amendments, which she later withdrew, also alleged that a gambling boss had been financing the 2020–2021 Bulgarian protests. This caused outrage in Bulgaria, leading to Metsola's social media accounts being flooded by protest messages, including threats and misogyny. The EPP amendments were finally defeated, and the resolution was adopted as it had been originally proposed.

In November 2020, Metsola was elected as the 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.

In June 2024, Roberta Metsola was elected for the third time as Member of the European Parliament, with a record number of 87,473 first preference votes.

President of the European Parliament

In November 2021, Metsola was chosen as the EPP candidate to succeed David Sassoli as president of the European Parliament on the expiry of his term as president in January 2022. Sassoli had been hospitalised with pneumonia in September 2021, and in December announced that he would not seek a second term as president, making Metsola his likely successor. Following further hospitalisation, Sassoli died on 11 January 2022, one week before the end of his term.

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. On her election, Metsola became the youngest ever president,

As President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola was the first leader of an EU institution to visit Ukraine in April 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Israel, with President von der Leyen, following the October 7 attacks in 2023.

Metsola meets President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the European Parliament on 9 February 2023. On 21 May 2023, Metsola participated in the European Moldova National Assembly together with President of Moldova Maia Sandu. This was a massive pro-European rally in the Moldovan capital Chișinău with tens of thousands of participants. Metsola gave rally participants a message during her speech: ("Europe is Moldova! Moldova is Europe!"). Metsola has called for strengthening the powers of the European Parliament. On 16 July 2024 Roberta Metsola was re-elected President of the European Parliament with a record of 90% (562 of 623 MEPs who voted).

Anti-abortion views Metsola had consistently voted for anti-abortion resolutions. From the beginning of her tenure, she faced questions over her opposition to abortion, which is legal in every EU member state, except Malta and Poland. In a 2015 press release, she and fellow Maltese MEPs declared that they were "categorically against abortion". On her election as president of the European Parliament, she stated that during her tenure she would represent the European Parliament's position, which recognises safe access to abortion as a human right.

Other activities Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies, member of the Executive Board Friends of Europe, member of the Board of Trustees (since 2020)

Personal life Metsola met her Finnish husband, Ukko Metsola, at a youth event in 1999. They married in 2005. They both ran for the 2009 European Parliament election, making them the first married couple to run in the same European Parliament election from two different member states. They have four sons. United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus:

In Veritate Award given to EP President Metsola for her achievements in combining Christian and European values, in 2023

President Metsola awarded the 2024 Forum Europa Prize in Madrid