Maria Camilleri Calleja
Ambassador of Malta to the United Arab Emirates
and Permanent Representative of Malta to IRENA

Career: Having joined the Public Service and then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2000, Ms Camilleri Calleja was assigned to the Protocol and Consular Office until October 2001 when she moved to cover Near Eastern Affairs within the Bilateral Affairs Directorate.  In April 2002, she was posted as Deputy Head of Mission and Consul at the Embassy of Malta in Stockholm.  In 2005, she was offered the unique opportunity to be the first Maltese female diplomat to serve as Consul-General in Tripoli, Libya. Simultaneously, she was part of the Schengen Evaluation team which led to the successful assessment and accession of Malta to the Schengen Acquis.  During her tenure in Libya, Malta also opened a visa office in Benghazi.

In 2008, she returned to Malta and covered Mediterranean Regional Fora as Senior Official for Malta in the Union for the Mediterranean, on the Board of Governors of the Anna Lindh Foundation and covering 5+5 Western Mediterranean issues.  In 2011, she was seconded as Research Analyst with the Standing Committee for Foreign and European Affairs of the Parliament of Malta.  Returning to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2013 in the role of Counsellor and Head of Unit for Africa as well as the EU Common Security and Defence Policy, she was concurrently assigned as Secretary of the Council for Maltese Living Abroad – a government-appointed body – covering diaspora affairs under the chairmanship of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, until October 2016.

In 2014, Ms Camilleri Calleja was appointed Director (International Development, Economic Affairs and European Institutions) covering sustainable development, commercial issues, relations with the OSCE and the Council of Europe as well as Cultural Diplomacy.  Parallel to her directorship duties, she also headed the team preparing the ministry for the 2017 European Union Council Presidency, covering policy, events in Malta, events in Missions, logistics, budgeting and staffing.

In December 2017, she was appointed Director-General (Political and EU Affairs), coordinating inter alia the team that drafts Malta’s positions within the Common Foreign and Security Policy, strategic foreign policy positions, and bilateral relations.

On 23rd November 2020, Ms Camilleri Calleja presented her credentials as first resident Ambassador of the Republic of Malta to the United Araba Emirates, to H.E. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai; and as Malta’s first-ever Permanent Representative of Malta to IRENA in Abu Dhabi, to IRENA Director-General Francesco La Camera.

Education:  Born on 22 March 1976, Maria Camilleri Calleja graduated cum laude from the University of Malta as Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in Contemporary Mediterranean Studies in 1999.  She went on to graduate once again in 2000 with a Master of Arts in Diplomatic Studies from the Mediterranean Academy for Diplomatic Studies at the University of Malta.

She also successfully followed a number of training courses:
• 2001: École Nationale d’Administration (ENA) in Paris in Diplomatic Practices;
• 2010-11: Spanish Language offered by the Institute of Public Service;
• 2012: Subsidiarity and Proportionality Detection in EU Legislative Proposals proposed by the European Commission to the Council and the European Parliament with the Academy of European Law (ERA);
• 2015: EU Council Presidency Preparation and Management at the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA); and
• 2019: International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) on Women, Peace and Security invited by the State Department of the U.S.A.

Personal:  Speaks Maltese, English, Italian, French, Spanish, with a basic understanding of Arabic and Swedish.  She loves books.  Married and has two sons.