Not just any woman

Malta needs a woman in the European Parliament. But not just any woman. We need a woman who knows Malta and Europe and loves them both. We need a woman who understands Europe and can make the best of it for Malta. We need a woman of whom Malta and Europe can be proud. We need a woman with the will, energy and ability to work for the good of Malta in Europe.

Joanna Drake is, first and foremost, a highly successful and qualified professional. She was born in the year of independence and has already achieved a lot in her first 40 years.

By the age of 26, she had graduated LL.D., studied at the University of Wyoming in the United States and obtained a postgraduate diploma in Advanced European Law from the prestigious College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. She also spent a year as a junior diplomat in Malta's embassy to the European Union in Brussels, travelled widely and worked as a newscaster at Television Malta. In her spare time, she acted in various plays and in 1988 was voted MADC best actress. Joanna Drake excels at whatever she does.

In the past 14 years, Dr Drake has flowered as a lawyer with a deep knowledge of European business law and an even deeper social and political conscience.

Since 2003 she has chaired the Occupational Health and Safety Agency (OHSA), thus fulfilling a long-standing commitment to social progress. In 1988 she wrote her LL.D. thesis on industrial relations and the principle of equality of arms.

In between, she served as adviser to the Minister for Social Policy, deputy umpire of the appeals board in the Department of Social Services, and chaired the Commission for the Advancement of Women. She has also published professional studies on various social subjects - marital rape, inhuman and degrading treatment before the Maltese courts, Maltese women and the EU, the Maltese family and the EU, positive action for women in management, and Maltese social law and the EU.

Dr Drake has also been successful as a commercial lawyer. She is company secretary and head of the legal department of Vodafone Malta. She has been director of Mid-Med Bank and an associate with a leading law firm. She has been a lecturer in the Faculty of Laws at the University of Malta, where she lectures on European Union law. Before that she was senior legal officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her published works have covered EU competition law, EU trade law, small and medium sized enterprises in the EU, the EU Constitution, and the Maltese Industrial Development Act and EU law.

Dr Drake has Europe in her blood. As a core member of MEUSAC, she was in the centre of the team negotiating Malta's EU membership. And, as in a democracy success can be achieved only through the people's will, she stood as a PN candidate in the 1998 election when the main issue was Malta in Europe.

But it was as chairman of the Moviment IVA fl-Ewropa, as a passionate leader for a great political cause, that the Maltese public discovered Joanna Drake. Discovered her, admired her and loved her. Dr Drake believes in Europe and she transmitted her belief to the Maltese public - with passion, intelligence and political acumen. With her convictions - based on years of study, work and achievement - she was ready to take on any challenger, in any debate, and did so. Many still recall her brilliant performance against men previously thought to be heavyweights. Joanna Drake is bound to excel in the debates of the European Parliament.

Having chaired the YES campaign for two years, Dr Drake did not just talk. She proved herself a leader of men - as well as women. The campaign brought out her underlying talents to organise and lead a mass movement and to take important decisions rapidly and well. She faced opposition calmly and intelligently and overcame it with her convictions. It was due to her, as much as to any other, that the Maltese electorate saw reason and voted for Europe.

Joanna Drake has already given a lot to Malta and she has a lot more to give Malta in the coming years. We voted for Europe because it was best for our children's future. Joanna Drake can make the future come true.

She is not just any woman.