President Emeritus of Malta and President of the UN General Assembly
Guido de Marco one of Malta’s most influential politicians in the post-Independence era, is perhaps best known for his key role in the drive to take Malta into the European Union. But his contribution to the building of the new Malta goes deeper than that as he directly shared in the drawing up of the Island’s new economic and social architecture in the 33 years he served as a member of parliament, fittingly ending his service to the country as President of Malta.
Born in Valletta, the son of Emmanuele De Marco and Giovanna née Raniolo, Guido was educated at St Aloysius College and the RUM where he graduated NP (1951), BA in philosophy, economics, and Italian (1952), and LLD (1955). In 1967 he was appointed lecturer and later professor of criminal law at the UM. He was defence counsel in several cases involving human rights.
Active in politics since his student days when he set up a PN committee at the RUM, De Marco was also the editor of Encounter and The Leader, organs of the Nationalist youth movement. He was elected president of the SRC in 1953 and in the same year he organised the first National Congress of Maltese Students.
In 1964 de Marco was appointed crown counsel at the crown advocate general’s office, a post he relinquished two years later to contest successfully the 1966 elections in the interests of the PN and he was returned to parliament in all general elections up to 1998.
DeMarco always contested the 1st district, which comprises Valletta, and the 7th, 8th or 10th districts. In 1966 (812 1st district and 2,449 8th district), in 1971 (1542 1st and 3,213 8th district), in 1976 (2,417 1st and 2,631 7th), in 1981 (3,215 1st and 3,561 7th), in 1987 (3,891 1st and 3,699 7th), in 1992 ( 2,125 1st), in 1996 (2,975 1st and 3,104 10th), and in 1998 (3,228 1st and 2,815 10th).
He was the PN’s parliament spokesman on justice, parliamentary affairs, and human rights since 1973. The enthusiasm and capacity for hard work in his character stood out as he combined a busy lawyer’s career with the duties of the PN’s secretary general (1972-1977) and later deputy leader (1977-1998).
De Marco was appointed deputy prime minister and minister of the interior and justice in 1987, and minister of foreign affairs and justice in 1990 and presented Malta’s application for membership of the EU at Brussels in July 1990. Appointed deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs after the 1998 PN electoral victory, on 11 September 1998 he presented Malta’s request for the reactivation of its application for membership to the EU.
De Marco held the post of foreign minister until April 1999, when he was elected President of Malta on 4 April, and served as President till April 2004.
De Marco represented the Maltese parliament in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly for almost 20 years, serving as vice-president of the assembly’s rules and procedures committee and as vice-president of the assembly’s Christian Democratic Group. During his term of office as minister of the interior and justice, Malta became a member of the Pompidou Group and participated at the meeting of ministers of the Group in London in 1989.
As minister of foreign affairs, de Marco attended several CSCE conferences. He was also chairman of the Maltese delegation to the special session of the UN General Assembly devoted to drugs held in New York. He attended the meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs of Mediterranean non-aligned countries in Algiers (1990) and Ghana (1991).
On 18 September 1990 de Marco was elected president of the UN General Assembly (45th session). As president, he visited Palestinian refugee camps in the Israeli-occupied territories, Jordan, Washington, the Vatican City, Albania, USSR, the People’s Republic of China, the Democratic Republic of Korea, Prague, Ethiopia, Rome, Switzerland, Kuwait, Ukraine, Warsaw, and Vienna where he addressed the 8th UN International NGOs meeting on the Palestine question.
In 1993 in Paris, de Marco signed the convention of the prohibition of the development, production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and on their destruction. He also signed the framework document of the Partnership for Peace/North Atlantic Co-Operation Council (NACC) in 1995. He accompanied the President of Malta on various state visits. He delivered lectures on international political affairs between 1991 and 1995 in Italy, Moscow, Beijing, India, Greece, Munich, Budapest, Jerusalem, Cairo, and London.
De Marco was unanimously appointed chairman of the Commonwealth Foundation by its board of governors for a two-year term: between January 2005 and January 2007. In 2005 he led the Commonwealth Observer Group to the elections in Tanzania and in December 2006 he was appointed to a committee of senior experts to review the rules governing Commonwealth membership.
De Marco was appointed companion of the National Order of Merit (K.O.M.) (1994), and he was conferred with an honorary law degree by the Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli (1999), the Gran Croce dell’Ordine al Merito Melitense by the SMOM (2000), Honorary Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (2000), and the Gra-Cruz da Ordem de Merito by Portugal. The UM conferred upon him the degree of doctor of literature honoris causa in 2001, while St Petersburg State University conferred upon him the degree of doctor of science honoris causa in 2004. He was also awarded the Order of Diplomatic Merit by the Republic of Korea.
De Marco was awarded the Prix de la Fondation 2004 at the 15th annual Crans Montana Forum in Switzerland in June 2004. In 2005 he was awarded the Stresemann Gold Medal by the Stresemann Society of Germany in recognition of his contributions to the unification of Europe and the work of the UN. In June 2007 he was awarded the Robert Schuman medal by the European People’s Party and in September, De Marco was awarded a Jean Monnet Chair in the EU and Dialogue between People and Cultures. In 2008 de Marco received the medal of honour by the Spanish Diplomatic School.
President Guido de Marco died on 12 August 2010. He collapsed at his home in Sliema at about 3.30p.m. and was rushed to Mater Dei Hospital where he lost a battle he had been fighting for a week since developing complications before udergoing a heart procedure. All those who knew him described him as a man with an indestructible optimism, where losing never featured in his vocabulary.
De Marco was married to Violet née Saliba and they had a son, Mario*, a politician and lawyer, and two daughters, Giannella and Fiorella, both members of the legal profession.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.