It is ironic that a society which claims to be a guardian of ‘family values’ is prohibiting thousands from marrying, Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Michael Briguglio said yesterday.

Mr Briguglio was speaking at a seminar on family and divorce policy in the EU held yesterday at Europe House in Valletta.

He said Malta stuck out like a sore thumb in the EU, because it was the only country that did not allow separated spouses to remarry in their own country unless they obtained a financially prohibitive divorceoverseas or had valid grounds for annulment.

AD Social Policy spokesman Angele Deguara said the concept of the family had changed both in Malta and in the wider EU.

“We have to respond to these changing realities today. Social policy and Maltese legislation have to be congruent with these realities so that there will be fewer obstacles and less suffering experienced,” she said.