Dr Marisa Farrugia is currently the Ambassador of the Republic of Malta to the Republic of Poland. She presented her credentials to His Excellency Andrzej Duda, President of the Republic of Poland, on the 25th October 2021.

She served as the Deputy Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean in Barcelona and was in charge for Social and Civil Affairs from September 2019 to August 2021.

Dr Farrugia was appointed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Malta as Special Envoy to the Union for the Mediterranean and served in this role from July 2017 to August 2019. As Special Envoy, she was responsible for Global issues and other sectors mainly the 5+5 Dialogue and tourism.

Prior to her posting in Barcelona, she was Head of Unit for the MENA region at the Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs, and subsequently Assistant Director at the Directorate for External Relations and Mediterranean Affairs from 2014 to mid-2017.

In 2012, she was posted at the Embassy of Malta in Tripoli. In the early eighties, she served at the Foreign Office as junior Desk Officer for countries in various regions.

Throughout her career Dr. Farrugia was also Education Officer at the Directorate for Curriculum Management, Ministry of Education, and a visiting lecturer at the University of Malta for more than sixteen years at the Faculty of Arts and the Mediterranean Institute.

Marisa Farrugia holds a Ph.D. in Arabic and Near Eastern Studies from the University of Leeds, a Master’s degree from the University of Toronto, Canada, majoring in international relations and the socio-political aspects of the Arab world, and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Malta.

Among her publications one finds two monographs: one in the Maltese language about the history of the Maltese Alphabets. The book is entitled L-Istorja tal-Alfabett Malti, No. 62, Kullana Kulturali Series, Malta, 2004; and The Plight of Women in Egyptian Cinema (1940s-1960s), University of Leeds, United Kingdom, 2002.

Ambassador Farrugia is married and has a son. She is passionate about Mediterranean and English literature, comparative linguistics, and the visual arts.