Dr Joe Borg has been appointed Chairman of the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies known as MEDAC. Dr Borg was unanimously accepted as Chairman by all members of the governing board to succeed Professor Guido de Marco who passed away last August.
Dr Joe Borg was nominated by the Government of Malta through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; his nomination was endorsed by the University of Malta, the Swiss Foreign Ministry and the German Government which have representatives on the Board.
The Academy has been established for the past twenty years and provides courses in diplomacy even at advanced level to Maltese students and foreign students from countries all over the globe; a limited number of scholarships are also available to students to study at the Academy.
On accepting the nomination, Dr Borg requested that the allowance payable to him as Chairman of the Academy be allocated for the awarding of scholarships to students.
Dr Joe Borg, 58, graduated Doctor of Laws in Malta in 1975 and Master of Laws in Wales in 1988. Since 1979, Joe Borg has held academic posts at the University of Malta specialising in Company Law, and in Industrial Law. He also held various posts as legal adviser to companies and corporate bodies in Malta and abroad. In 1995, he was the main author and drafter of the Malta Companies Act. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Malta between 1992 and 1995.
Dr Borg was elected in 1995 as a Member of the House of Representatives for the Nationalist Party and he also served as Parliamentary Secretary within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1998/99. He then became Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malta between 1999 and 2004, during which period he led negotiations for Malta’s accession to the European Union. In 2004 he took up the post of Member of the European Commission with responsibility for fisheries and maritime affairs. His mandate as European Commissioner came to an end in February 2010. He has resumed lecturing at the University of Malta since October 2010.