Commission-companion-full

COMMISSIONER
Karmenu Vella
Environment, maritime affairs
and fisheries
Country Malta
Born Zurrieq, ˙ 19 June 1950
Political affiliation PES
Twitter
@KarmenuVella
Nicknames have a special significance
in Malta. Whether a badge of
individual respect (or notoriety), a
man’s laqam will often tell you more about
him than his entire CV.
Karmenu Vella has had many titles in his
40­year political and business career:
minister for public works, industry, tourism,
the economy; chairman of the Corinthia
Group of companies; shadow minister for
finance, to name but a few. But to many in
Malta he is known simply as “The Guy”: a
nickname that goes back to his early
campaigning days, when he was regarded as
atypically urbane and well­groomed for a
representative of a blue­collar workers’
party.
The appellation reflects a quality that set
Vella apart when he stood for parliament
for the Labour Party in 1976, then in his
mid­20s. Often at odds with the militant
Maltese socialism of the time, he projected
an image of affable bonhomie. Likewise, his
television appearances over four decades of
electioneering have earned him a
reputation as a soft­spoken, almost docile
interlocutor – far more at home in his
native Maltese than in English or Italian,
though he speaks all three.
Time has also endowed Vella with a
certain venerability in Maltese politics.
When he vacated his parliamentary seat in
2014 he was one of only two MPs who had
served uninterruptedly for 38 years.
But Vella’s ascendancy in Maltese politics
cannot be attributed to mere charisma. It is
widely acknowledged that his enormous
grassroots popularity would not have been
possible without the special relationship he
forged in the late 1960s with former prime
minister Dom Mintoff.
In those early days, Vella was “the Guy”
who accompanied Mintoff wherever he
went. This earned Vella another, less
flattering nickname: “Mintoff’s pet”.
Ironically, however, Vella would in later
years be credited with a lead role in the
post­1992 transformation of the Labour
Party.
This collision between ‘Old’ and ‘New’
Labour proved a defining moment for the
party, which emerged ‘purged’, so to speak,
of many faces from the old guard. Not Vella,
however: he retained his prominence, in
52
government and opposition.
Vella has been assigned sensitive cabinet
posts in every Labour administration since
1981. But it was in tourism that he left the
most lasting impression. Tourism accounts
for 14% of Malta’s GDP. Most would
concede that it was under Vella’s
management that the strategic importance
of this sector was first given the concerted
government attention many felt it deserved.
For much the same reasons, however, not
everyone sings Vella’s praises. Vella’s own
direct interests in the sector have raised
eyebrows. In 2001, while shadow tourism
minister, Vella was appointed executive
chairman of Corinthia Hotels International,
Malta’s largest hotel chain.
Tourism may be a speciality, but Vella has
no experience in the areas that he is now
responsible for as a European
commissioner. That did not go unnoticed in
his hearing before the European Parliament,
where there were concerns about giving the
environment portfolio to someone from a
country that has a spring bird­hunting
season.
Efforts have also consistently been made
to resurrect Vella’s connections with
Mintoff’s Labour government of the 1980s –
a political administration that has since
CV
2013-14 Tourism and aviation minister
2010-13 Chairman of Orange Travel
Group
2008-13 Co-ordinator of the Labour
Party parliamentary group
2008-10 Executive chairman of
Mediterranean Construction Company
2001-07 Executive chairman of Corinthia
Hotels International
2000 Master’s degree in tourism
management, Sheffield Hallam University
1996-98 Tourism minister
1984-87 Industry minister
1981-83 Public works minister
1976-2014 Member of parliament
1973-81 Architect
1973 Degree in architecture and civil
engineering
been found guilty of human rights
violations. As The Times of Malta put it last
year: “There were allegations against the
government over political thuggery, tax
evasion and corruption.” Vella has not been
implicated in any such allegations; and even
his political opponents concede in private
that he is a difficult man to dislike. In a
country that routinely throws up political
heroes and villains, “The Guy” does not
quite fit into either role.
Cabinet
Head of cabinet
Patrick Costello
Deputy head of cabinet
Gabriella Pace
Cabinet members
Jürgen Müller
Aurore Maillet
András Inotai
Andrew Bianco
Lanfranco Fanti
Antonina Rousseva
Brian Synnott
Costello was deputy to the chair of the
EU’s Political and Security Committee, a
group of member states’ ambassadors
dealing with security issues, in 2011-14
and deputy head of unit in the
Commission’s external relations
department in 2009-11. He worked for
Margot Wallström, the commissioner
for communication and interinstitutional
relations, in 2007-09 and
for Josep Borrell, European Parliament
president, in 2004-06. The office’s
deputy head of cabinet is Gabriella Pace,
a Maltese who worked with the
European Central Bank from 2009 as a
senior lawyer.