Brussels (The Brussels Morning Newspaper) – EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola selects her long-time aide and brother-in-law Matthew Tabone as the charge of her cabinet as President of the European Parliament.
Who Is Matthew Tabone and What Is His New Role?
Roberta Metsola has selected her long-time aide and brother-in-law Matthew Tabone as the head of her cabinet as President of the European Parliament. Tabone entered the European Parliament in 2013 as director of President Metsola’s MEP office. He has been part of her cabinet as Head of her Private Office and Public Relations since her election as President.
In the last years, Tabone has conducted different teams within the Cabinet, including managing a transparency reform and being charged with the coordination of the President’s engagement with the European public in the run-up to the European Parliament elections last June. He takes over from Leticia Zuleta De Reales Ansaldo who has taken up her post as head for relations with National Parliaments within the European Parliament.
Why Is Metsola’s Appointment of Tabone Noted Amid the Qatargate Scandal?
In 2022, Tabone was praised for the role, but Metsola was being questioned on the timing of the appointment over the Qatargate scandal that has swung the EP and its implications over nepotism and undue influence in the EP. He was not selected at the time. While EP rules from 2009 prohibit MEPs from appointing direct relations, Tabone is not deemed a first-degree relative.
The position of head of the cabinet, spent at some €15,000-€20,000 a month, involves maintaining connections with political groups and the EP’s various administrative departments, as well as other institutions. In 2023, Matthew Tabone was quoted by Politico, a news portal that covers EU and international affairs, as one of Brussels’s Top 40 most powerful people.
