Everything about Guido De Marco totally explained
Guido de Marco (born
July 22,
1931) was
President of Malta from 1999 to 2004.
Prof. Guido de Marco was born at
Valletta,
Malta on
July 22 1931, son of the
late Emanuele and Giovanna née Raniolo
. He was educated at St Joseph High School,
St. Aloysius' College and the
University of Malta. He graduated as a
Bachelor of Arts in
1952, in
Philosophy,
Economics and
Italian and in
1955 as a
Doctor of Laws. For a time he served as a lawyer for the government.
He unsuccessfully contested the
1962 elections with the
Democratic Nationalist Party (a splinter group of the
Partit Nazzjonalista or Nationalist Party). He subsequently joined the main party and was elected for the first time in the interests of the Nationalist Party to the
House of Representatives of Malta in April
1966 and was returned to Parliament at every
General Election until
1998. Appointed Secretary General of the Nationalist Party in
1972, he served until
1977 when elected Deputy Leader and had since been uninterruptedly confirmed until his resignation in March
1999.
When the Nationalist Party was returned to office in
1987, Prof. de Marco was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior and Justice. During his tenure, Prof. de Marco introduced several bills in the House of Representatives that integrated important conventions, such as the
European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law. As Interior Minister he led the reform and modernization of the Police Force and founded the
Malta Police Academy.
As Minister of the Interior and Justice he attended Conference of European Law Ministers in
Lisbon (
1988), and the Hague (1989) and of the
Commonwealth Law Ministers in
New Zealand (1990). It was also during his tenure that Malta became a member of the
Pompidou Group, where he participated at its meeting of Ministers held in London in
1989. Prof. de Marco led Malta's delegation to the
United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs held in
New York.
He was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Justice in May 1990 and Minister of Foreign Affairs between February
1992 and October
1996. One of his first acts as Foreign Minister was submitting Malta's application for membership of the
European Communities in Brussels on
July 16,
1990. Stressing Malta's European vocation, Prof. de Marco also underlined the validity of the Mediterranean dimension. He continued to promote and pursue the principle that the Euro-Mediterranean dialogue was a basic element in creating structures to consolidate regional security and co-operation. He was also instrumental in consolidating Malta's active contribution to the work of international organisations, including the
United Nations, the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the
Council of Europe and the
Commonwealth.
On
September 18,
1990, Prof. Guido de Marco was elected
President of the United Nations General Assembly (45th Session). During this time he initiated a dialogue, that later led to a presidential motion unanimously approved, to revitalize the
United Nations General Assembly and other aspects of reform necessary during a time of transition in international relations. Representing the
United Nations General Assembly, as its President, Prof. de Marco undertook a number of diplomatic initiatives leading to his visit to the refugee camps in the
Occupied Territories and
Jordan, to
Ethiopia and
Albania.
Other initiatives include his meetings with
United States Secretary of State,
James Baker during the
Gulf War and with H.H.
Pope John Paul II. He was also invited to
Moscow for talks by the
USSR Council of Ministers and to the
People's Republic of China. As President of the
United Nations General Assembly he also visited the
North Korea and
South Korea in May 1991, leading to the admission of these two countries to the
United Nations, as well as
Chernobyl and
Czechoslovakia. During his Presidency, Prof. de Marco also proposed a new role for the
Trusteeship Council, an initiative which was pursued by Malta within the United Nations and which is still under discussion to date.
Between 1990 and 1996, Prof. de Marco also spearheaded other key initiatives in both the
bilateral and
multilateral fields including the expansion of Malta's representation overseas and the conclusion of important agreements in areas essential for economic growth and co-operation. He headed Malta's delegation to the various
CSCE/OSCE Conferences. In January 1992, at the CSCE Council in Prague, Malta launched Prof. de Marco's initiative to declare the CSCE a regional arrangement in terms of Chapter VIII of the
United Nations Charter, a proposal which was later approved by the Heads of State and Government at the
Helsinki Summit. He also continued to promote dialogue between the CSCE and the Mediterranean non-participating States. Prof. de Marco has given particular attention to the Maltese Community overseas and has visited Maltese migrants in
Australia,
Canada, the
United States, the
United Kingdom and smaller communities in a number of other countries.
Prof. de Marco was elected by the
House of Representatives of Malta to be one of its representatives at the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 1967 where he remained for almost twenty years as a member of this Parliamentary Assembly. He served as member and rapporteur on several occasions of the
Legal Affairs Committee and Vice President of the
Committee on Rules of Procedure. During 1996-1998 he was re-elected by the House of Representatives as a member of Malta's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, during which time he was elected Chairman of the newly constituted
Monitoring Committee. He also continued to serve in his capacity as Vice-President on the
Independent World Commission on Oceans.
Between 1996 and 1998 Prof. de Marco served as Shadow Minister and Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs and as a member of the
Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs.
He was re-appointed
Deputy Prime Minister of Malta and
Minister of Foreign Affairs on
September 8,
1998, following the Nationalist Party's victory at the 1998 General Elections, a capacity which he held until his nomination to the
Presidency of Malta. On the
September 11 1998, he presented Malta's request for the reactivation of its application for membership to the
European Union to H.E.
Wolfgang Schüssel, then
Foreign Minister of Austria and
President of the Council of the European Union.
He was, after the termination of office as President of Malta, appointed Chairman of the Commonwealth Foundation.
(External Link
)
He is married to Violet (
née Saliba). They have a son,
Mario, and two daughters, Gianella and Fiorella, all members of the legal profession.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Guido De Marco'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://guido_de_marco.totallyexplained.com">Guido de Marco Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |