In Malta most people have the family at heart and the political parties have used "family" jargon to convince the electorate of their family-friendly policies. However, very often the family is very narrowly defined and, despite the rhetoric, policies are often targeted at the "male breadwinner - housewife - children" model.

As a woman with a full-time career and a family, I feel that the government has often paid lip service to facilitating a true work-life balance for parents although some progress has been made. I agree with the stand taken by AD, the Green party, that family-friendly policies should be harmonised across the EU so that all EU citizens would be able to enjoy the same rights in terms of child-care facilities, parental and maternity leave and flexibility at work to enable parents to establish a viable work-life balance which would help strengthen the family.

Let's hope that AD gets its deserved place in the European Parliament so that it will be able to lobby for these much needed policies.

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