Simon Busuttil leaves EPP for senior European Parliament role
Former PN leader to serve as director within parliament's administration
Simon Busuttil has been appointed to a senior role within the administration of the European Parliament.
Busuttil, a former Opposition leader, will assume the role after a five-year stint as secretary-general of the European People’s Party group in the European Parliament came to an end earlier this year.
The former PN leader has now been appointed director in the administration of the European Parliament. He will be responsible for operational planning in DG LINC, the directorate responsible for logistics, interpretation and conferences.
European Parliament directors report to 16 director-generals leading the parliament's various directorate-generals. They, in turn, report to Alessandro Chiocchetti, the secretary-general of the European Parliament and its most senior administrative official.
Chiocchetti previously served as head of cabinet to Roberta Metsola, the Maltese MEP who leads the parliament as its president.
The new role means Busuttil will shift away from the EPP grouping to serve as an official of the European Parliament bureaucracy. He will be the first Maltese national to occupy a post in the parliament’s senior management structures since Malta joined the EU in 2004.
PN MEP Peter Agius was among the first to congratulate Busuttil, calling the appointment a “proud day for Malta”. Fellow MP David Casa said Busuttil was continuing to make Malta proud.
Busuttil – a former MEP who then shifted to domestic politics when he was made PN leader in 2013 - moved to Brussels in 2020 after EPP leader Manfred Weber handpicked him for the secretary-general role. At the time, Busuttil served as a PN MP, having resigned the party leadership following defeat in the 2017 general election.
EU-focused news outlet Politico revealed last October that Busuttil was “on his way out” as EPP secretary-general, with Weber seeking to consolidate his grip on the EPP by installing his head of cabinet, Ouarda Bensouag, in that role.
Busuttil subsequently spent some months as principal advisor to Weber before transitioning to his new role within the European Parliament.