It was most welcome news on Monday when Civil Liberties Minister Helena Dalli confirmed that the government is wasting no time in making good on its pre-electoral pledge to introduce civil unions for same-sex couples.

In fact, it was confirmed on Monday that the government is to move a bill on the issue before the summer recess, meaning that this often discriminated segment of the population will, at long last, soon  see the introduction of this civil right that has been absent from the country’s statute books for too long now.

While not the on the level of same-sex marriage that was recently introduced in France and New Zealand, the civil unions being proposed are just one step shy of same-sex marriage, and several steps ahead of the cohabitation bill produced during the last legislature.  But of course, just how avant-garde the legislation being contemplated is remains to be seen.

Without same-sex marriage, a growing number of European countries have introduced civil unions as a way of giving homosexual couples the same rights and status accorded to married couples, and Malta is now on the verge of following suit.  In actual fact 10 European countries and close to two dozen countries around the world have to date introduced civil marriage.

But unlike and in the relatively recent divorce issue, in Malta there will presumably be no referendum, no bitter, scaremongering, bigoted campaigning – only a parliamentary debate and a vote, which has very little chance of failure given the government’s gaping parliamentary majority.

It was perhaps serendipity that the Prime Minister paid a visit to French President Francois Hollande yesterday, one day after Hollande’s government secured a comfortable margin in the French Assembly for the introduction of gay marriage, a pre-electoral promise, two days after the Maltese government confirmed it would table a civil union bill by the summer’s parliamentary recess.

When Hollande had promised to legalise gay marriage, it was seen as relatively uncontroversial but the issue eventually grew into a heated national debate that saw violent clashes between police and anti-gay marriage protestors within hours of Tuesday’s vote, which made France the 14th country to introduce gay marriage.

One wonders what elements will emerge once it comes time for the civil union vote in Malta, as surely many of those who had so vehemently opposed the legislation of divorce will have to say about this new civil right.  There has been a curious silence on the issue so far but it will surely not be too long before opposition is raised.

While France had the civil unions that Malta appears set to introduce since 1999, French law had not provided for adoption by gay couples. The new law voted into being on Tuesday has introduced that.  Gay couples can in fact legally adopt in all of the countries that have legalised gay marriage, as well as Brazil and the United Kingdom.

And while the contents of the bill introducing civil unions to be tabled in Malta’s Parliament are not yet known, it will be interesting to see if the draft bill proposes the possibility of adoption by same-sex couples in civil unions.  That is a very real possibility given that the Prime Minister has in the past expressed his support for such a move.

Just before France, last week, New Zealand also legalised gay marriage, by a vote of 77 to 44. Same-sex marriage is recognised in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland, Argentina and Denmark, while in Uruguay a law has been passed and is only awaiting the president’s signature.  Many US states provide for gay marriage and US President Barack Obama has declared his support for it.

In all, two dozen countries have civil unions for same-sex couples, and 14 now have same sex marriage.  But, on the other hand, same-sex conduct is illegal in 76 countries and is even punishable by death in five - Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen.

Within this growing Western tide of liberalism and civil rights it is at once refreshing and encouraging to see that Malta will soon be at the vanguard in terms of gay rights rather than bringing up the rear as it has on so many other issues