Prominent civil servant Lorenzo Vella has passed away at the young age of 42, after falling seriously ill towards the beginning of the year.

He has held senior roles within the Maltese and EU civil service, and most recently served as the head of the EC delegation to Malta since early 2023.

Prior to this role, Lorenzo served as Permanent Representative of Malta to the Council of Europe.

Leaving behind his wife and two children, the news has been met with an outpouring of grief by Malta’s civil servants, political class, as well as family and friends.

Writing on social media, Prime Minister Robert Abela said he is saddened by the news, and noted Lorenzo’s “impeccable” work for the country, and in his younger years, for the Labour Party.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, a member of the European People’s Party and Malta’s Nationalist Party, wrote a heartfelt message, recalling her earlier University activist days were she routinely debated with Lorenzo:

“I've known him since his days as an activist at University, arguing student motions and counter-motions to make this world a little bit better for everyone. In all our conversations since, he never lost sight of that aim, working tirelessly to bring people around the same table. He fought hard and bravely – always.”

Lorenzo has served as a former policy officer in the DG Employment in Brussels, as technical attaché to the Permanent Representation of Malta to the EU and chaired the Social Questions Working Party under Malta’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

In 2017, he was appointed deputy permanent representative of Malta to the EU, and returned to the island in 2020 as chief of staff to deputy prime minister Chris Fearne.