Simon Busuttil to stay on as MP after taking up EU Court experts’ role

Outgoing PN leader nominated to panel of experts appointing EU judges, but will stay on as MP in Malta

Simon Busuttil
Simon Busuttil

Outgoing Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil has said he will stay on as MP after it was announced that he had accepted a four-year appointment on the panel overseeing the appointment of judges and advocates-general at the European Union Court of Justice.

Busuttil was nominated for the post by the European Parliament, and will replace Italian MEP Luigi Berlinguer, whose term ends 28 February.

The nomination was made by the chairman of the EP Committee on Legal Affairs, Pavel Svoboda, in a letter sent to EP president Antonio Tajani on 18 July, just six weeks after Busuttil resigned the PN leadership post after the general election defeat.

In a statement confirming the appointment, the Nationalist Party said that the committee meets eight times a year and that Busuttil will remain an MP.

The nomination was approved by the Committee on Legal Affairs on 13 July.

The ECJ panel gives “an opinion on candidates’ suitability to perform the duties of judge and advocate-general of the General Court before the governments of the member states make the appointments.”

The panel is made up of seven people chosen from among former members of the Court of Justice and the General Court, and lawyers of recognised competence, one of whom – in this case Busuttil – is proposed by the European Parliament.

Busuttil was a former MEP before becoming PN deputy leader in 2012 and then PN leader in 2013. He resigned in June 2017.