Cyrus Engerer’s boyfriend joins the European Commission as a Brexit policy officer

Published: February 23, 2017 at 9:43am

The news from Brussels this morning: Cyrus Engerer’s boyfriend, Randolph Debattista (who became Randolph De Battista on moving to Belgium), has joined Michel Barnier’s team as a policy officer. Barnier is the European Commission’s chief negotiator for Britain’s exit from the European Union.

This means that Debattista has ‘transitioned’ – to use a word favoured by Malta’s most notorious cabinet minister, Konrad Mizzi – from Malta’s permanent representation at the EU, where he was chief of staff to perm rep Marlene Bonnici at Dar Malta, to the European Commission itself.

His boyfriend, Cyrus Engerer, has been given ambassador status and terms and conditions of employment (for which read pay, perks and privileges) despite his criminal record of a two-and-a-half year jail sentence confirmed by the Court of Appeal.

Randolph Debattista was an activist for the Labour Party’s youth forum, and a campaign worker, when the Labour Party was elected to government in March 2013. His ‘transitioning’ from that lowly field to the elevated and demanding post of chief of staff to Malta’s perm rep in Brussels, for which certain skills and knowledge are required, was part of the bargain which Cyrus Engerer struck with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

A top-level position for him was not enough, because he wanted to take his boyfriend with him, and his boyfriend would need to have a top-level position too. Because as Engerer well knows – which is how he ended up with a criminal record – if you have leverage then you might as well use it.

Left to right: Cyrus Engerer, the prime minister, Randolph Debattista