23 Facts About Simon Busuttil

Simon Busuttil's career is mostly linked with EU affairs as well as with his parliamentary roles in the European Parliament and in the national Parliament in Malta.

In 1999, Simon Busuttil was appointed Head of the Malta-EU Information Centre and led Malta's public awareness campaign ahead of the 2003 EU membership referendum.

In 2004, Simon Busuttil was elected as an MEP with the Nationalist Party in the election for the European Parliament netting the largest number of personal preference votes, 58,899 votes.

Simon Busuttil was the first Maltese MEP to address the European Parliament on 21 July 2004.

Simon Busuttil was re-elected to the European Parliament in the 2009 election, again registering the largest vote tally of votes ever, or 68,782 votes.

Simon Busuttil was elected an MP in the 2013 general election.

Simon Busuttil was one of four candidates running for leadership along with Mario De Marco, Raymond Bugeja and Francis Zammit Dimech.

Simon Busuttil led the Opposition charge against the Labour Government led by Joseph Muscat following the revelations made by Daphne Caruana Galizia and PanamaPapers in February and April 2016 respectively.

In reaction, Simon Busuttil said that people faced a stark choice between Joseph Muscat's interests and Malta's interest and appealed to voters to 'Vote for Malta'.

Simon Busuttil claimed that the elections were a matter of trust, not just proposals.

Simon Busuttil claimed that Muscat called the snap election to evade justice.

Simon Busuttil led the General Election campaign based on a platform of the fight against corruption and the importance of Rule of Law.

In that election, Simon Busuttil contested the 11th and 12th Electoral Districts in the 2017 Maltese general election as the leader of the Nationalist party.

Simon Busuttil conceded defeat and the following day announced his resignation as leader of the Nationalist Party along with the entire party administration.

Simon Busuttil met party activists on 6 June 2017 and explained that although he would be leaving, the party should "never give up" in its principled fight for the rule of law.

Simon Busuttil announced a new and more open procedure for electing the new leader, with all party members being able to vote to elect their leader for the first time.

On 17 September 2017, Simon Busuttil was succeeded by Dr Adrian Delia as leader of the Nationalist Party and on 6 October 2017 as Leader of the Opposition.

Nevertheless relations between them turned sour when Delia asked Simon Busuttil to resign from the PN parliamentary group in the wake of the news of the publication of the conclusions of the 'Egrant' magisterial inquiry into the alleged ownership of one of the Panama company by the Prime Minister's wife, which concluded that no proof was found that Egrant belonged to the Prime Minister's wife although the inquiry did not find details of the actual owner.

Simon Busuttil warned Delia that he should not side with Muscat and refused to suspend himself.

The Administrative Council of the Nationalist Party met later during 22 June 2018 in order to discuss the events, and backed Delia's request to Simon Busuttil, asking the latter to make way so that the party can move on in an effective matter, as no one can be considered bigger than the party.

On 14 January 2020, Simon Busuttil was appointed as the new Secretary General of the EPP Group in the European Parliament.

Simon Busuttil officially took over his new responsibility of Secretary General of the EPP Group on 1 May 2020.

Simon Busuttil was subject to criticism on a number of direct orders that he was awarded from previous Governments under the Nationalist administration.