Racial equality legislation

I refer to the article entitled EU Agency Urges Malta To Step Up Anti-Discrimination Efforts (August 30). The article quotes the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in its criticism of Malta for not having completely transposed EU Racial Equality Legislation.

It is important to underline that the FRA report outlines the situation as at 2006. Considering the lapse of time involved, the author of the article is encouraged to verify the relevance of his comments to the developments that have taken place since then.

In fact, this year two important pieces of legislation have been adopted, thus transposing all the provisions of the Racial Equality Directive. By virtue of Orders 85 and 86 of 2007, issued under the European Union Act, those who feel discriminated against on grounds of race or ethnic origin may seek recourse to the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality. The reporter is therefore not correct in stating that "the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality...works only in the promotion of gender equality".

On a different note, the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality is pleased to note that the FRA report cites, as one of the EU's good practices, the fact that the Malta police continued to provide training on racism and xenophobia. This training programme was in fact delivered by an officer of the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality in 2006, that is, even before the Commission was officially entrusted with the remit of racial equality.