Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1174220
6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 OCTOBER 2019 NEWS JAMES DEBONO THE European Union's new commissioner for equality He- lena Dalli has already announced that one of her first visits will be to a Roma settlement, a minority which faced its own 'Porajmos', or Holocaust at the hands of the Nazis and which she described as "Europe's most discriminated". But a recently published Eu- robarometer survey suggests that she faces an uphill battle to change popular sentiment against this community. And prejudice is rife even in Dalli's home country, Malta, which does not have a sizeable Roma minority living on the is- land but tends to be exposed to the Italian media which is rife with anti-Roma prejudice propa- gated by far-right leader Matteo Salvini. Indeed, only 10% of Maltese have actually been acquainted with Roma people compared to 20% of EU respondents to a Eu- robarometer survey. The findings reveal that 39% of Maltese would feel "uncom- fortable" if one of their children is in a romantic relationship with a person of Roma ethnic- ity – nine points higher than the percentage of respondents in all 28 EU members states who feel the same. Only 24% of Maltese would be completely comfort- able while 10% would be moder- ately comfortable. The greatest discomfort on this aspect is expressed by Bulgarians (73%), Greeks (60%), Cyriots (55%) and Italians (51%). On the other hand, only 12% of Swedish respondents would feel uncom- fortable with their children dat- ing a Roma person. Moreover, 21% of Maltese – compared to 27% of all EU re- spondents – would feel uncom- fortable if their children have Roma schoolmates. Only 31% would feel completely comfort- able while 19% would feel mod- erately comfortable. While 49% of respondents in all EU member states would feel comfortable with a prime minis- ter of Roma ethnicity, only 32% of Maltese express the same feel- ing. The least comfortable with the prospect are the Lithuanians, Bulgarians, Estonians and Ital- ians. Overall the survey found that 61% of Europeans agree that so- ciety would benefit from greater integration of Roma people. The Maltese were the most non- committal with 44% replying 'doesn't know'. Who are the Roma people? Roma people have a long his- tory of living in Europe with a presence recorded from the 13th Century. Roma originated in India but left the subcontinent in the 11th century. From there, they crossed into the Byzantine Em- pire, and then up to southeast- ern Europe and Spain. Barred from purchasing land or joining guilds, the Roma had no choice but to move about. Wander- ing became a way of life, and the Roma fit into the European economy by selling merchandise in rural areas distant from shops. Europe's Roma and Sinti people were targeted by the Nazis for to- tal destruction. The Porrajmos, or Porajmos, which translates to 'the Devouring', is the term used to describe the Nazi geno- cide of Europe's Roma and Sinti population. More than 200,000 Roma and Sinti were murdered or died as a result of starvation or disease, around 25% of the pre-war population. Many more were imprisoned, used as forced labour or subject to forced steri- lisation and medical experimen- tation. They are now widely recog- nised as one of the EU's largest minority groups with an esti- mate of more than 10m Roma living in Europe. The term "Ro- ma", first chosen at the inaugural World Romani Congress held in London in 1971, is now widely accepted across the European Union (EU) as a generic term to describe a diverse range of com- munities, tribes and clans. They are now widely recognised as one of the EU's largest minority groups with an estimate of more than 10 million Roma living in Europe. MALTA'S commissioner-elect Helena Dalli will have a tall order ahead of her as she un- dertakes a mission to unblock a European directive that has never gathered enough steam: enforcing a mandatory 40% quota for women on boards of directors. Businesses have long opposed the move, first pushed by Vivi- ane Reding in 2011, who ar- gued at the time that with 60% of all university graduates being female, women were drasti- cally under-represented on the boards of Europe's biggest listed companies – just 14% of board members, and 3% of board presidents then. Even Malta's Chamber of Commerce was against gender quotas, calling the one-size-fits-all directive as being unsuitable for Malta "due to cultural issues and the avail- ability of support structures for professional mothers." Even the Nationalist gov- ernment in 2012 opposed the EC plans for the quota, but in its 2013 electoral manifesto pledged that it would enforce the measure in all publicly- listed companies by 2020 "and encourage the private sector to follow suit". That was before 2013, when Labour's election saw free childcare introduced across the board, but although female workers increased, representa- tion on boards of directors as well as government boards and companies is still wanting. Now the government plans to introduce quotas for women MPs, a measure that, however, can only apply in situations where just two parties are rep- resented in the House. For Dalli, the challenge now is to "engage" with member states to convince them about the value of unblocking the direc- tive, which would require that women make up a minimum of 40% of boards in the private and public sectors. Just 5% of major European companies have female chairs of their boards of directors, according to the European Gender Diversity Index, com- piled by European Women on Boards and Ethics & Boards. On average, women make up 33.6% of non-executive board members. France is top in this category with women making up 44.2% of board members, followed by Italy (36.5%) and Germany (30%). The Czech Re- public has the smallest female representation at 19%. Malta was among the worst performing countries in the EU on gender equality in 2019, according to a European Com- mission report, ranking among the worst five countries on five indicators – employment rate gap, gender pension gap, wom- en on company boards, women in parliament and women as senior government ministers. Malta's female employment rate has steadily increased from 45.3% in 2012, to 57.6% in 2017. Similarly, the female ac- tivity rate in the labour market increased from 48.8% 2012 to 60.2% in 2017. Women were mostly em- ployed as service and sales workers (28.8%), with 7.4% in managerial positions, com- pared with 12.2% of men. Despite the fact that men sig- nificantly outnumber women in the workforce, the num- ber of female professionals is only marginally lower than for males. In fact, 18,648 women were listed being employed as professionals, compared with 19,856 men. Women are also underrep- resented in local government, with only 21.9% of council- lors being female. 13 out of the country's 69 mayors were women in 2017. 39% of Maltese uncomfortable with children dating Roma Another tough cookie for Dalli: women on boards A protest in Bucharest, Romania in 2018 by Romani people against antigypsyism in Europe Helena Dalli during her grilling in the European Parliament Percentage of women on company boards, Malta compared to EU average