Photographic archives and the European Union agenda: interview with Malta’s national archivist during Malta’s Presidency of the European Union

Abstract

The European Union (EU) has a system of six-month rotation whereby each Member State holds the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, which is the main governing body of the EU. Malta is leading its first term in such a role spanning from 1 January to 30 June 2017. Such an opportunity often stimulates the various sectors and this is the case with the archives domain in Malta during the Presidency. The National Archives of Malta is responsible to organise four high level meetings and support three others. Heading the organisation team is Dr. Charles J. Farrugia, Malta’s national archivist. He is not a new face to the sector and has worked in archives for the last twenty-eight years, eighteen of which leading the national archives. He also has the organisational experience of the highly successful CITRA conference held in 2009. That event welcomed in Malta 251 archivists from 91 countries. But the Presidency is different. It spans over six months and includes a high dose of policy formulation. We decided to interview Dr. Farrugia on what is the relevance of all this activity to the Maltese archives sector, in particular photographic holdings and services.