Deborah Schembri

Schembri was elected to the Parliament of Malta in March 2013 as a member of the Labour Party, and also became a member of the Maltese delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.^[7] She authored a PACE report detailing discrimination against transgender people in Europe after meeting with officials and transgender rights advocates in several countries, including England, Scotland, Spain, and Turkey.^[8][9] In the assembly, Schembri was an advocate for accessible and affordable gender reassignment procedures, including hormone treatment and surgery.^[10]

In November 2013, she announced her candidacy for the 2014 European Parliament election in Malta.^[11] She was endorsed by prime minister Joseph Muscat, who had asked her to run. Schembri ran on a platform focused primarily on job creation and civil rights.^[12] She was not successful in the November 2014 election, receiving 5,983 votes and finishing eighth among the Labour candidates.^[13]

Schembri was appointed as parliamentary secretary for planning and simplification in January 2016 after Michael Falzon resigned.^[1] She oversaw a series of major reforms of Malta's Lands Department after the corruption scandal that led to Falzon's resignation, including appointing an audit officer to supervise public land transactions over €100,000.^[14][15] She also introduced an amnesty bill for buildings with planning illegalities and increased fines on fish farm operators whose feeding practices resulted in pollution of the Maltese coast.^[16][17] Schembri lost a close race for re-election in 2017, and was succeeded by Clayton Bartolo.^[18]

After leaving office, Schembri became a legal consultant for the Maltese Planning Authority and Lands Authority. She is also the chair of the board of appeals for the government fostering agency.^[19]