Ritratt: Unjoni EwropeaThe President of Malta, Myriam Spiteri Debono, represented the country at a meeting of European Council members in lieu of Prime Minister Robert Abela.
The virtual gathering, held on 19 August, brought together European Union leaders to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine, following meetings the previous day between various heads of state and US president Donald Trump.
When Newsbook Malta directly asked the Office of the Prime Minister to explain why the President, rather than Abela, attended this crucial meeting, the Office chose not to respond to the questions.
The meeting saw participation from numerous high-ranking officials, including French president Emmanuel Macron, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, Austrian chancellor Christian Stocker, and several other EU heads of government. According to photographs published on the European Council website, 21 leaders participated in total, including Malta’s president.
Also present were European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa, Council of the European Union Secretary-General Thérèse Blanchet, and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas.
Newsbook Malta pressed the Prime Minister’s Office on several key questions: the reason for president Spiteri Debono’s attendance instead of the prime minister, whether there have been previous instances of the president replacing the prime minister at European Council meetings, whether it is standard practice for the president rather than the deputy prime minister to step in when the prime minister is unavailable, and what matters were discussed during the session.
But while the Prime Minister’s Office provided a response, it was notably incomplete. Officials described the gathering as “a short, informal online meeting organised to provide information on the progress of the discussions taking place in Washington.”
They explained that both online and formal in-person European Council meetings are restricted to Heads of State or Government, with procedural rules permitting only the President of the Republic or another member state’s prime minister by proxy to replace Malta’s Prime Minister.
However, the Office conspicuously failed to address the fundamental question of why Abela was absent from this important meeting, effectively sidestepping the enquiry altogether.
The photographs from the European Council website show the various European leaders who participated in this significant discussion on Ukraine.
