Randolph De Battista’s nomination as Malta’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva has been approved by parliament’s Public Appointments Committee by four votes to two.
De Battista's appointment was announced by Robert Abela last August, one day after De Battista quit as Labour CEO.
The appointment was formally approved during a parliamentary session on Monday.
All government MPs on the committee - Chris Agius, Andy Ellu, Clayton Bartolo and Katya De Giovanni - voted in favour of the appointment.
Opposition MPs Adrian Delia and Julie Zahra voted against.
Delia said the opposition did not question De Battista’s competencies but was concerned with the manner and timing of his appointment.
“We believe that this appointment is purely political, motivated not so much by the competences but by the need to remove an outspoken member of parliament from the government benches,” Delia charged.
“We cannot approve such a move,” he continued.
De Battista is currently also an MP, having been coopted into parliament in March 2022. He will have to resign from parliament to assume the ambassadorial role.
During a sitting that lasted approximately 30 minutes, De Battista faced scrutiny over his nomination which primarily focused on the opposition’s concerns about his sudden transition from being an MP to taking up a diplomatic role.
Delia asked whether the appointment was purely intended to remove De Battista from his current role in parliament.
"I am concerned with how such an appointment was made,” he said.
Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo defended De Battista, stating that his nomination should be judged based on competence, a point which Delia did not contest but raised concerns about the overall process and timing.
De Battista responded by explaining that his nomination was based on his experience, as he has previously contributed to multilateral diplomacy.
He also said that the process for appointing non-career diplomats had become more transparent than ever.
Opposition MP Julie Zahra pressed further, asking if De Battista saw himself as part of the ‘musical chairs’ currently taking place in government and party ranks.
De Battista refrained from engaging in political debate but stressed that his role as an ambassador would require a different approach than his political duties.
Delia concluded by questioning whether De Battista’s outspoken political stance would be silenced in his new diplomatic position, to which De Battista replied that his work would continue but in a new context, serving Malta on the international stage.
During his presentation and in reply to the questions asked, De Battista highlighted his experience as part of former deputy prime minister Louis Grech’s team.
He underscored the contacts he made over the years at the World Health Organisation, World Bank and with the assistant to the Secretary General of the United Nations.
He said he believed in multilateral diplomacy and expects to focus his attention on health and human rights, particularly children’s rights.
Geneva serves as the United Nations' European base and also hosts the headquarters of several international organisations.
De Battista is a lawyer who also served in Malta’s Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels.
In 2017 he also worked in Michel Barnier’s cabinet. Barnier, who is now France's prime minister, was at the time the EU’s top negotiator for Brexit.
De Battista then shifted to a party role, serving as CEO of the Labour Party between 2017 and 2020.
He entered parliament in 2022 at started his second stint as Labour CEO at around the same time.
Following Monday’s sitting, parliament will inform the foreign affairs ministry about De Battista’s approval before his nomination is made official.