Guido de Marco, Maltese president who worked for EU membership, dies at 79

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Guido de Marco, a former president of Malta who helped the island nation win European Union membership, has died. He was 79.

He died Thursday after suffering a heart attack at his home in Valletta, Malta, and the government responded by declaring three days of mourning.

A veteran Nationalist party leader, De Marco was foreign minister when he submitted Malta’s application for EU membership in 1990. The tiny Mediterranean archipelago joined in 2004, the last year of De Marco’s five-year term as president.

A fine orator and a top criminal lawyer in Malta, he was first elected to Parliament in 1966.

He also served as president of the U.N. General Assembly in the 1990s.

-- Associated Press