Senior Maltese diplomats at the Foreign Office are fuming over a government decision to send a Labour activist instead of a seasoned diplomat to the European Commission’s Brexit team .

The Times of Malta is informed that Randolph Debattista, until the last elections working in the communications office of the Labour Party, has been seconded by the government to the European Commission’s Brexit team.

A spokesman for chief negotiator Michel Barnier confirmed that Mr Debattista was chosen by the Maltese government to act as Malta’s presidency representative on the team helping out the former EU commissioner.

Mr Barnier has been entrusted by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to act as the EU executive’s chief negotiator with the British government on the terms of the UK’s exit from the EU.

The government’s decision to send Mr Debattista to the Brexit team irked senior Maltese diplomats, both in Malta and in Brussels, who said that this decision continues to show the Prime Minister’s total disregard for the experience of Malta’s diplomats and the Foreign Ministry as a whole.

“Instead of taking the opportunity to send to Mr Barnier’s team one of Malta’s most seasoned diplomats, who can help out with wide experience on this dossier, the Prime Minister chose a political appointee with no experience whatsoever in diplomatic circles,” a senior diplomat who used to serve as an ambassador told the Times of Malta.

“For the OPM, the Brexit post seems to be an opportunity for another promotion for a blue-eyed boy and not an opportunity for the country to show its mettle,” another diplomat said.

Mr Debattista was catapulted to a Brussels post as a government person of trust and assigned to manage the office of Malta’s permanent representative to the EU, Marlene Bonnici.

In Brussels, he joined his boyfriend, Cyrus Engerer, who after being found guilty of a criminal offence relating to pornography dropped his candidacy as an MEP hopeful on the Labour ticket.

Instead, the Prime Minister sent Mr Engerer and Mr Debattista to Malta’s permanent representation in Brussels, with salaries of over €80,000 a year each.

Mr Barnier’s spokesman made it clear that Mr Debattista was the Maltese government’s choice and his secondment would only last until the end of Malta’s presidency of the European Council.

Asked to confirm Mr Debattista’s secondment and how he had been appointed, a spokesman for the Prime Minister said the appointment was “based on his qualifications and experience”.

This newspaper has already reported the strained relations between the Foreign Affairs Ministry, headed by senior minister George Vella, and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, which is also directly responsible for European Affairs.

In what seemed to be an internal government rift, diplomats at the Foreign Office and in embassies around the globe were ordered to stop using the logo of Malta’s presidency of the EU in their correspondence.

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