MEP Marlene Mizzi won a prestigious international award presented to her during a ceremony in Brussels for her outstanding work and contributions in the area of animal welfare protection.

The award is organised annually by the Eurogroup for Animals in recognition of individual achievements made to animal welfare protection and promotion of rights. The award ceremony brought together stakeholders from many EU, national and international organisations as well as governments and decision makers to discuss how improvements in animal welfare can be addressed in the coming years.

As a Vice-President of the Animal Welfare Intergroup, MEP Marlene Mizzi has played a leading role in gathering political support and promoting animal welfare related issues at European level.  In 2016 she also hosted the conference "Rights of the Voiceless" in Malta aimed at raising awareness and  guiding the creation of the new Animal Welfare Platform, to promote companion animal welfare and to undertake new initiatives to tackle the problems related to trade in exotic animals as pets.

Marlene Mizzi has also been instrumental in calling for a European study on "Animal Welfare in the EU" and in promoting a ban of the use of wild animals in circuses among others.

MEP Marlene Mizzi said that “it is such an honour to win this prestigious award not only for me, but as well for Malta. I am greatly humbled that people have placed their faith and trust in my work as an MEP in the area of animal welfare and protection of animals.”

“I take this award as a political sign, that the work I have been doing doesn’t go unnoticed and that it is time to take even stronger stance on promoting animals and their wellbeing. The EU must give higher priority to the many issues falling under animal welfare laws,” said Marlene Mizzi.