Peter Agius, the head of the European Parliament in Malta, will be joining Antonio Tajani’s cabinet as his speech writer.

Mr Tajani, 63, was elected President of the EP, succeeding Martin Schultz on January 17.

Dr Agius will be taking up his new post on February 6 and the term expires on the day of the EP elections in May 2019.

He told timesofmalta.com it was a great privilege for him to assist one of the European Union's main organisations, the cabinet of the European Parliament's President, which had the role to bring together politicians of different beliefs, preside over the plenary and represent the EP in all of the EU's institutions and international fora.

Although he loved his current role explaining to the people in the street what the EU meant and what were its benefits, Dr Agius said it was a great privilege to be asked to be Mr Tajani's speech writer and he could not let the opportunity go.

His current office, he said, had invested in its own media channels, had television and radio programmes and very active social media channels with 5,000 to 6,000 interactions each week. Around 80,000 people per week were reached on the social media channels.

Dr Agius stressed the importance of effective communication.

"We have to speak to the people on things that matter to them even at the cost of being unpopular."

He will now being doing this on a macro, rather than a micro level.

Prior to taking up his post as head of the EP in Malta in 2012, Dr Agius worked with the Council of Ministers in Brussels for 10 years. His duties in the Council involved participation in the negotiations with the European Parliament on internal market legislation.

Mr Agius, 38, read Law at the University of Malta where he graduated in 2000 (LL.B.) and 2003 (LL.D.). In 2006 he graduated Masters in European Law at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

In 2002 he joined the legal services of the Council of the European Union in Brussels.