Malta’s diplomatic corps is poised for a significant shake-up in the coming year, as some of the country’s top ambassadorial posts are reassigned.
Marlene Bonnici, who has led Malta’s representation to the EU in Brussels for almost a decade across two stints, is to move to Berlin as Malta’s ambassador to Germany.
She will be replaced by Neil Kerr, a diplomat and EU policy expert with several years of Brussels experience. Kerr previously served as deputy permanent representative under Bonnici and presided over the EU's Committee of Permanent Representatives during Malta's tenure as EU Council president.
Kerr also worked under Leo Brincat and Helena Dalli at the European Court of Auditors and European Commisison respectively. He most recently served as an adviser at I.D.E.A., a European Commission advisory service reporting directly to EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
Sources said Martina Portelli, who currently serves as Bonnici’s head of cabinet, is being earmarked to serve as Kerr’s deputy.
It will be the second time Bonnici serves as ambassador to Germany: an initial posting to Berlin was cut short when she was called back to Brussels in 2020.
The change is part of a broader shake-up of top diplomatic posts being planned, which Mark Camilleri and Neville Gafá both hinted at in separate posts on their respective websites.
Vanni Xuereb, Malta’s current ambassador to Germany, will be moving to Brussels to serve as Malta’s ambassador to Belgium.
The current ambassador to Belgium, Clint Tanti, will be shifting offices to work within European Commissioner Glenn Micallef's cabinet.
Malta’s high commissioner to the UK, lawyer and former Labour MP Emmanuel Mallia, will also be packing his bags.
Mallia is Madrid-bound, sources told Times of Malta, and will assume the ambassadorial position vacated some months back by Daniel Azzopardi, who is now serving as Malta’s ambassador to Italy.
Mallia’s replacement in London will be Professor Stephen Montefort, a respiratory physician who addressed a Labour Party rally in 2022. This will be Montefort's first diplomatic posting.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry will also be making a change at its UN representation in New York, sources said. Ambassador Vanessa Frazier’s term is soon up and she will be replaced.
But no decision on her replacement – or Frazier’s next post – has yet been made, sources told Times of Malta.