On November 30, 2016, former Parliamentary Secretary for the Elderly Justyn Caruana announced with great pomp and ceremony at a media conference that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had appointed the first Commissioner for Older Persons in Malta, in accordance with legislation passed by Parliament the previous month. The government had informed the European Union about its intention to appoint the commissioner a long time before it actually did. In fact, merit was already given to Malta for its initiative in a report on the Active Ageing Index that was published by the EU more than six months before.