Joseph Muscat

Joseph Muscat
Malta's Leader of the Opposition
Incumbent
Assumed office  01 October 2008
President	George Abela
Preceded by	Charles Mangion
Member of Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office  01 October 2008
Preceded by	Joseph Cuschieri
Leader of the Labour Party
Incumbent
Assumed office  06 June 2008
Deputy	Angelo Farrugia
Preceded by	Alfred Sant
Member of the European Parliament
In office 12 June 2004 – 25 September 2008
Preceded by	New Constituency
Succeeded by	Glenn Bedingfield
Majority	36,958
Born	22 January 1974 (1974-01-22) (age 35) Pietà, Malta
Nationality	Maltese
Political party	Labour Party (Malta) Party of European Socialists
Spouse(s)	Michelle née Tanti
Children	Etoile Ella Soleil Sophie
Residence	Burmarrad (San Pawl il-Bahar)
Profession	Economist Journalist
Religion	Roman Catholic
Website	www.josephmuscat.com www.mlp.org.mt

Joseph Muscat (born January 22, 1974) is a Maltese politician, leader of the Labour Party and is currently Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives of Malta.

Education

Muscat graduated Bachelor of Commerce in Management and Public Policy from the (University of Malta, 1995), Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Public Policy (University of Malta, 1996), Master of Arts in European Studies (University of Malta, 1997) and Ph.D in Management Research (University of Bristol, 2007).

Journalism

Muscat worked as a journalist with the Party's radio station, Super One Radio (today One Radio). He later took on a similar role at Super One TV.[1], becoming the station's assistant head of news in 1996. He was also editor of Party's online newspaper, maltastar.com[2] between 2001 and 2004.

Politics

Muscat was as a member of the youth section of the Labour Party, the Labour Youth Forum (Forum Żgħażagħ Laburisti) where he served as Financial Secretary (1994-97) and Acting Chairperson (1997). He later served as Education Secretary in the Central Administration of the Party (2001-2003) and Chairman of its Annual General Conference (November 2003). During the Labour government of 1996-98 he was a member of the National Commission for Fiscal Morality (1997-98).

In 2003 he was nominated to a working group led by George Vella and Evarist Bartolo on the Labour Party's policies on the European Union. This working group produced the document Il-Partit Laburista u l-Unjoni Ewropea: Għall-Ġid tal-Maltin u l-Għawdxin ('The Labour Party and the European Union for the benefit of the Maltese') which was adopted by the Labour Party Extraordinary General Conference in November of that year. At this General Conference Muscat was approved as a candidate for the election to the European Parliament.

European Parliament

Muscat was elected to the European Parliament in 2004 with 36,958 votes, being the most voted candidate for the Labour Party.

Muscat was a Member of the European Parliament with the Party of European Socialists) and Vice-President of the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and of the Delegations for relations with Belarus. He was also a substitute member of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, the Delegation for relations with the countries of south-east Europe and the Delegation to the EU-Armenia, EU-Azerbaijan and EU-Georgia Parliamentary Cooperation Committees.

As an MEP he supported a reduction in the tax for Satellite television dishes, the right for customers to watch sport events for free and a number of issues related to environmental protection in Malta. He formed part of a team responsible for a report on the roaming mobile phone bills and sale of banks.

Muscat resigned his seat in the European Parliament on 25 September 2008 to take up a seat in the Maltese Parliament and the role of Leader of the Opposition after being elected Leader of the Labour Party. Before his resignation his report proposing new regulations for the EU’s financial services sector was adopted by the European Parliament.

2008 Leader of Labour Party campaign

On March 24, 2008 Muscat announced his candidacy for Leader of Labour Party, to replace Alfred Sant, who resigned after a third consecutive defeat for the Party in the March 2008 general election and a heavy defeat in the EU referendum in March 2003. Muscat was elected as the new party leader on June 6, 2008.

He was co-opted in the Maltese Parliament on 1 October 2008 to fill the seat vacated by Joseph Cuschieri.

2009 Maltese European Parliament Elections

In the Maltese European Parliament Elections, held on the June 6th, 2009, Muscat faced his first Election as Party Leader. The Labour Party managed to win these elections by landslide obtaining 55% of the vote against the 40% obtained by the Nationalist Party, the best result achieved by any political party in a nationwide election since Independence.

Family and personal life

Muscat is married to Michelle née Tanti and they have twin daughters, Etoile Ella and Soleil Sophie.

References

External links

• Official website of Joseph Muscat: www.josephmuscat.com
• European Parliament biography of Joseph Muscat (incl. Speeches, Questions and Motions)