EV50 award was luck-bringer for premier turned president

By David Cronin

Date: 23/09/04

LAST year's European of the Year, Eddie Fenech Adami, continued to enjoy good fortune in 2004.

In February, Malta's then prime minister turned 70, marking his birthday by stepping down as head of the Nationalist Party. Less than two months later he had a new job - as president of his country.

While he was not the most illustrious figure in the EU's enlargement, Fenech Adami gave the process an important psychological boost, for which he was rewarded by European Voice readers.

Malta was the first of the ten states that joined the Union on 1 May this year to stage a referendum on its membership bid during 2003. At the time, officials in the other accession countries, as well as in Brussels, were jittery at the prospect that this tiny island might spurn the Union, triggering a ripple effect for the referenda that would follow.

Yet despite acerbic bickering between the Nationalist Party and the opposition Labour Party over whether joining the Union was in Malta's best interests, the vote went in favour of membership. This was a considerable personal triumph for Fenech Adami. He was the one who had revived Malta's application to join the EU in 1998, after it had been shelved by an earlier left-leaning government.

Accepting his EV50 award, Fenech Adami traced back Malta's European vocation to the time when the Knights of St John were given tenure of the island in 1530.

His compatriots, he said, were passionate about politics, jokingly voicing concern that only 91% had turned out in the referendum - about 5% lower than is normal in elections.

"I was always sure the Maltese would make the right choice," he said. "This is a homecoming for us. It is where we belong."

Although the role of Malta's president is largely ceremonial, Fenech Adami's appointment provoked howls of protests from some commentators.

He was rebuked for seeking a mandate as premier in 2003, then taking a new post after less than a year of his mandate had expired.

And many MPs and journalists contended his 17-year stint as prime minister left him unsuitable for a job that is supposed to be above the grubby world of party politics.

Because of the criticisms, his protégé-turned-premier Lawrence Gonzi has gone to considerable lengths to prove he is not a puppet of the president. In August Gonzi set out ambitious plans to break with the policies pursued by his predecessor on issues ranging from pensions to subsidies for public transport.

Portrait of 2003 European of the Year, Maltese President Eddie Fenech Adami.