Helena Dalli's three-hour hearing before MEPs on Wednesday tackled a range of issues.
Her one-line comment about the Panama Papers captured most local headlines, but it was not the only opinion expressed by the EU's Equality commissioner-designate.
Dr Dalli's performance impressed many of the MEPs who questioned her, and within hours unofficial word filtered through that she had the two-thirds majority needed to be approved as commissioner.
“She showed a profound knowledge of her portfolio,” women's rights and equality committee (FEMM) coordinator Evelyn Regner told the press right after the hearing.
This is a selection of remarks and observations made by Dr Dalli during her hearing.
On the glass ceiling:
Dr Dalli highlighted the need for more girls to study STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – subjects and emphasised the need to break gender barriers within IT.
That prompted her to circle back to arguing for the need to continue working to eliminate gender stereotypes, and she provided an anecdote to bolster her argument.
There was a time when science was not an obligatory subject at schools, she told MEPs, and few girls chose to study science.
When it became obligatory and all students had to sit for science lessons, she said, “the girls became better than boys”.
On abortion:
Dr Dalli ducked and weaved when asked to provide concrete examples of how she would further reproductive rights and instead resorted to using catchphrases such as “coalition of the willing”.
“I am a committed feminist and you have my word that I will do all possible in order to protect SRHR [Sexual and reproductive health and rights].
“I believe when you stand your ground you find allies to create coalitions of the willing… this is a guarantee of sexual and reproductive rights without exception,” she said.
On gender reassignment:
Dr Dalli quickly shot down MEP Christine Andersen from the Identity and Democracy group, who suggested that allowing people to ‘choose’ their gender would allow people to ‘cheat’ sporting rules.
Dr Dalli told Ms Andersen of people she met who “did not want to go out because their name did not correspond with the person you are seeing”.
“When you see these situations, how can you not legislate so that the lives of these people improve?” she asked.
“Gender reassignment is certainly not a walk in the park,” she said to applause.
On stopping discriminatory legislation:
One of the most direct questions Dr Dalli was asked was whether she would use a veto on Commission proposals that run counter to equality requirements.
“Will you put a stop to any legislative proposal that would represent an obstacle to equal opportunities?”
Dr Dalli replied succinctly – “my answer is yes”, she told MEP Katrin Langensiepen to applause.
On paternal leave:
Dr Dalli sympathised with an MEP who noted that a new work-life directive which limited paternal leave to 10 days.
“It’s never enough, is it?” she replied with a smile.
Dr Dalli however was not willing to commit to pushing beyond that limit, saying that such changes had to be negotiated with social partners first.
She had a similar reply when urged to broaden the directive’s scope by Maltese MEP Alex Agius Saliba.
“I believe the focus should be on implementation within the next three years,” she told him.
On domestic violence:
Dr Dalli said she found it hard to understand how some member states had yet to ratify the Istanbul Convention, which significantly bolsters legal provisions to counter domestic violence.
"When you see these statistics - one in three women suffer from gender-based violence - how can you not [ratify]," she asked.
She pledged to visit capital cities and discuss concerns with the countries still holding out.
Putting equality to the top of the next @EU_Commission agenda! A great performance from @helenadalli in #EPHearings2019 pic.twitter.com/385vJsbP6W
— S&D Group (@TheProgressives) October 2, 2019
On pay transparency:
This seems to be a priority for Dr Dalli, who twice said presenting a proposal concerning it would be one of the main focuses within her first 100 days in office.
“You cannot address the gender pay gap – and then eventually the pensions pay gap - unless you have pay transparency,” she argued.
“This is the tool we will be able to use to see where discrepancies are”.
On an anti-discrimination directive:
The EU has been planning and talking about introducing an anti-discrimination directive for more than a decade.
The discrimination would adopt a so-called ‘horizontal’ approach to tackling discrimination, enshrine anti-discrimination prohibitions into EU law and extend prohibition of discrimination to transport.
Dr Dalli repeatedly said that she would be placing great emphasis on “unblocking” this directive from the political dead-end it had found itself in.
European Commissioner-designate in charge of Equality, Helena Dalliarrives to attends her confirmation hearing.On Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder:
Dr Dalli repeatedly called the murder a “femicide”, despite no indication that the journalist was killed because she was a woman.
She highlighted the fact that three men had been charged with the murder and said the investigation was an ongoing one.
She did not reply to a direct question – the very first asked – about whether she was satisfied with the public inquiry appointed last month to look into the murder.
On the Panama Papers:
Irish EPP MEP Frances Fitzgerald wanted to know whether Dr Dalli agreed with the actions of minister Konrad Mizzi, who was caught with a secretive offshore financial structure he opened after entering office.
“I would have done things totally different. Throughout my career I always stood up for the rule of law and democracy,” she said.
As a Labour MP and cabinet minister, Dr Dalli had however backed Dr Mizzi in a 2016 confidence vote.
Two years later, she told journalists she had "no opinion" about Dubai company 17 Black, which documents suggest was intended as a source of income for the companies set up by Dr Mizzi and OPM chief of staff Keith Schmebri.