The European Commissioners have a reputation for being a bunch of gray bureaucrats. Some of them have a glamorous past life: Finnish Jutta Urpilainen once recorded a Christmas CD, Frenchman Thierry Breton likes to show off his science fiction novel, and even Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was with her as a child Siblings appeared singing on television.
Helena Dalli, Commissioner from Malta, can refer to several such entries in her biography. In 1979 she took part in the “Miss World” election as “Miss Malta”; and six years later she starred in the Italian-American action film “Final Justice”. In it, Dalli had exactly the supporting role that beautiful women were often intended in the cinema in the early 1980s: to look good and to help the male hero. The film was a total flop, on the film rating page Imdb it only gets two out of ten stars.
This Thursday, however, Dalli played a major role. As the first EU Commissioner for Equality, she presented the new strategy on gender equality in Brussels. This includes a whole package of measures, from the use against violence against women to the fight against the “gender pay gap” – the fact that women are often paid less for the same work than men – to a campaign against gender stereotypes : According to a 2017 study by Eurostat, 44 percent of Europeans find that the most important task for women is to look after the household and the children.
The issues of prejudice and equality have been with the 57-year-old social democrat since she was first elected to the Maltese parliament in 1996. Not only because Dalli had to prove herself there as a former beauty queen. But also because the doctorate in sociology was already responsible for women’s rights on the Prime Minister’s staff as State Secretary. From 2013 onwards, she also campaigned for more equality. During her tenure, she made important legal progress, especially for gays and lesbians and for intersex and transsexuals. In 2015, Malta was the first country to pass a law that prohibits gender reassignment in intersex children until the child is mature enough to make this decision themselves. Activists and civil rights activists worldwide celebrated the law as a milestone. Marriage for all and an adoption right for same-sex couples were also introduced during their time.
Nevertheless, Dalli was initially received with skepticism when she arrived in Brussels, because in other respects Catholic Malta is rather backward: marriages have only been divorced there since 2011, abortion is still prohibited. MEPs worried that Dalli, as EU Commissioner, could be too Maltese and bring such conservative views into her new job. At their hearing in parliament, Dalli quickly got the MPs on their side: with a vehement objection to the objection by an AfD MP, gender changes “from one day to the next” could lead to unfair competition in professional sports.
At a meeting with journalists on Wednesday evening, Dalli struggled to dispel worries that she might be self-conscious about her home country: “The fact that it was not even possible for us to divorce seven years ago shows that changes are taking place can if you really want it. ” Cultural differences should not serve as an excuse for Member States to oppose changes, said Helena Dalli, on the contrary: “We all have to get out of our comfort zone.”
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