[6] The Tedesco Triccas family stems from Swieqi,[7][8] near St. Julian's, Malta, and she grew up with her father Geoffrey (son of Emmanuel Tedesco and Helen Triccas Dimech), her mother Rita (daughter of Carmelo Bezzina and Francesca Briffa), and her two sisters, Ann and Lisa,[9] in Gżira.

[7][11] In 2002, at the age of 23, Tedesco Triccas was elected as one of the two vice-presidents of the executive board of the Youth Convention on the Future of Europe.

[15] In 2013–2014, she briefly served as legal advisor to the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton.

[17] On 24 April 2013, Metsola successfully contested the casual election to fill the vacated seat of Simon Busuttil, becoming one of Malta's first female members of the European Parliament (MEPs).

[21] Metsola was further re-elected at the 2019 European Parliament election in Malta; in this legislature, she closely followed the party line, voting together with the EPP delegation in over 90% of the cases.

[16] In 2014, Metsola led the EPP representation in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) in the work on the non-binding EU roadmap against homophobia and discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, whose rapporteur was European Green Party MEP Ulrike Lunacek.

[23] Metsola also co-authored a non-binding report on the European migrant crisis in 2016, aimed at establishing a "binding and mandatory legislative approach" on resettlement and new EU-wide readmission agreements, which should take precedence over bilateral ones between EU and non-EU countries.

[20] Within LIBE, where she chaired the EPP representation between January 2017 and 2020,[13] she has been part of the Rule of Law Monitoring Group (ROLMG) since 2018.

[13] In October 2020, in the discussion in LIBE on a parliamentary resolution on "the rule of law and fundamental rights in Bulgaria",[26][27] Metsola tabled amendments,[28] on behalf of the EPP, which were widely interpreted as shielding Bulgaria's EPP government from criticism, including by proposing to remove references to Venice Commission findings and to the misuse of EU funds and high-level corruption allegations directly involving the then prime minister Boyko Borisov.

This caused outrage in Bulgaria, leading to Metsola's social media accounts being flooded by protest messages, including threats and misogyny.

[32] In June 2024, Roberta Metsola was elected for the third time as Member of the European Parliament, with a record number of 87,473 first preference votes.

[34] Sassoli had been hospitalised with pneumonia in September 2021,[35] and in December announced that he would not seek a second term as president, making Metsola his likely successor.

[6] As President, she oversaw the Belgian police search the residence of Greek MEP Eva Kaili in the widening Qatar corruption scandal at the European Parliament over alleged corruption, money laundering, and other offences in relation to possible schemes of Qatar, Morocco, NGOs, and the FIFA World Cup.

[47] From the beginning of her tenure, she faced questions over her opposition to abortion, which is legal in every EU member state, except Malta and Poland.