President Emeritus Guido de Marco’s passing is a sad loss for his family and country. On behalf of the European Movement (Malta), I would like to join hands with the thousands of Maltese citizens in all walks of life who have expressed their condolences to his family and pay tribute to him. Prof. de Marco’s achievements, his standing as a statesman, as an erudite and refined intellectual will doubtlessly live on, challenging us to try and emulate him.
For us in the European Movement, Prof. de Marco will be remembered as a great Europeanist, for his indefatigable efforts to help Malta join the European Union and for his active and constant support and encouragement. As I began writing this piece my memory flashed back to that important moment in our country’s history, immortalized in a photograph, when on July 16, 1990, he presented Malta’s application to join the European Communities to the then Italian foreign minister Gianni De Michelis representing the Community’s Presidency. Then there was the intense diplomatic effort which he led in 1998 to reassure European leaders and remove any doubts which they had on Malta’s European vocation. This diplomatic offensive culminated in the EU’s October 1999 decision to start the membership negotiations with Malta. With his efforts, Prof. de Marco had managed to repair the huge damage caused by the short-sighted political blunder of his predecessors in office when they had suspended Malta’s application without even trying to negotiate a favourable accession “package”. Malta’s second change of mind on membership proved to have been a permanent one.
Prof. de Marco made other major contributions to the European cause. Throughout the 1970s up to the late 1980s, he worked in favour of Malta’s ratification of the protocol which would grant the Maltese the right to individually petition the Council of Europe’s European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Indeed, for 15 years, the Malta Council of the European Movement, as our movement was known then, campaigned for nothing else. In 1988, under Guido de Marco’s stewardship, the European Convention on Human Rights was incorporated into Maltese law.
Thus the curtains were brought down on a very unhappy chapter which had begun in 1965 when Malta joined the Council of Europe without however giving its citizens the right of individual petition to the European Court of Human Rights.
The Malta Labour Party had promised to give the Maltese this right once elected to government, but for 16 whole years found it expedient not to do so. It only ratified the enabling protocol just before it lost the 1987 election. In the meantime, human rights were often placed under severe stress or simply trampled underfoot, while many Maltese citizens thus coerced by their own government were left with no proper defence of their rights. The situation would have been worse were it not for a thin red line of human rights lawyers, amongst them Prof. de Marco.
Malta is fortunate because from the inception of the European Union with the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952, a number of its leaders understood the significance of this event in the much broader human condition and its importance for Malta. Dr George Borg Olivier, Dr Herbert Ganado and Dr Giovanni Felice not only struggled for and consolidated Malta’s independence, but also saw this as a key step to Malta’s eventual membership of the European Community. Prof. de Marco walked in their footsteps: he and his colleagues in successive governments led by Dr Eddie Fenech Adami took the baton from their hands and ran the extra lap that saw Malta achieve its place in Europe.
He was an active member of the European Movement (Malta) for many years and constantly supported it throughout his life. As President of Malta he made it a point always to attend the Movement’s annual commemoration of Europe Day.
This was highly appreciated by members of the Movement who were encouraged by his support particularly during the bleaker episodes of this long haul to membership. Guido de Marco has been taken away from us, but his legacy lives on.
Prof. Pace is chairman, European Movement (Malta).