Times: Dalli attacked over cautious approach to EU anti-discrimination law

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081023/local/dalli-attacked-over-cautious-approach-to-eu-anti-discrimination-law
Thursday, 23rd October 2008

The Malta Gay Rights Movement has criticised Social Policy Minister John Dalli for calling a proposed EU anti-discrimination directive "premature".

Mr Dalli said the directive should not prejudice national practices in areas such as marriage, the family, sexual and reproductive rights.

"How on earth can we ever discount an anti-discrimination directive as being ahead of its time? Are we finally admitting that our national practices in these areas are discriminatory?" the movement asked.

"Are we admitting that we are not prepared to do what it takes to ensure that people are not treated differently just because they have different religious beliefs, have a disability, are old or gay?"

The movement was reacting to Mr Dalli's speech earlier this month, at a meeting of the EU's Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council where he explained Malta's official position on the directive against discrimination in the provision of goods and services.

The directive aims at eradicating discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, disability, age and sexual orientation.

MGRM added that during a meeting with the Nationalist Party before the last election, the party had supported this directive "in principle", and this stand meant it was now going back on its word. The proposal gives member states two years to implement the necessary measures but in his speech Mr Dalli called for more time to be allotted and for a more detailed study to analyse the implications of such a proposal.

"Mr Dalli called for a long period of cultural adaptation, implying that discrimination is culturally engrained in our society and our government is not willing to do much to speed up the process of eradicating it," MGRM said.

The spokesman argues that there are thousands of Maltese who were either not Catholic, disabled, over 65, gay or a combination of these. "These are people who are vulnerable to unjustified discriminatory treatment, which the proposed directive is intended to address. The government does not have the political will to protect all these people from unfair discrimination, with at least the same sense of urgency and zeal as it is willing to safeguard the national coffers in the wake of rising energy prices," it concluded.

When contacted, a spokesman for Mr Dalli said that there was nothing the minister wanted to add to his speech.