The Maltese Labour candidate made it to this shortlist from the hundreds of candidates contesting this election in all 25 European Union member states.

Mr Muscat is not just the only Maltese in this list, which includes Belgian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish and Swedish candidates, but is also the only candidate from a new member state. He is one of three Party of European Socialists candidates in the list.

The CEPS report, which was compiled through a survey of national experts engaged by the European Policy Institutes Network, describes Mr Muscat as “a very young economist and financial adviser.”

The only other Maltese candidate to be mentioned in this report is Nationalist Party EP candidate Simon Busuttil who is identified in a European list of specialists running for this election.

The report can be accessed through the CEPS website www.ceps.be