EU Equality Commissioner Helena Dalli was in Malta for a two-day visit this week on the invitation of the Equality Ministry’s Human Rights directorate, the European Commission said on Saturday.

Dalli, who served as Malta’s Equality Minister before assuming the EU role in 2019, held bilateral meetings, addressed a joint parliamentary committee and held consultation meetings with stakeholders during her two days in Malta, on December 10 and 11. 

It was the first time Dalli was in Malta in her official capacity since becoming an EU Commissioner.  

Dalli also addressed a conference marking International Human Rights Day December 10, saying that the EU had adopted five equality strategies in her first year in charge, with two more in the pipeline. 

“I call on Member States to adopt equivalent equality strategies at the national level,” she said.

The five strategies adopted are:

- the EU Gender Equality Strategy, 
- the Gender Action Plan III in external relations, 
- the Anti-racism Action Plan, 
- the EU Roma strategic framework for equality, inclusion and participation
- the LGBTIQ Equality Strategy

Each strategy features different measures intended to encourage equality, from pay transparency measures within the gender equality strategy to plans to increase the diversity of EU staff members within the anti-racism plan presented.

An LGBTIQ equality strategy propopses extending the list of crimes classified as hate crime and ensuring mutual recognition of parenthood across EU member state borders.

Meanwhile, work on the EU Disability Rights Strategy and the Strategy tackling Anti-Semitism is ongoing, and both will be launched during 2021.