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Pia Lindholm, Legal Officer Equal treatment legislation, DG Justice was invited to Social Platform on November 19 to speak on goods and services in equal treatment legislation. Here you find a summary of her key points

The EU has a substantial body of legislation that Member States has to implement. Through Article 19 of the Treaty the EU specifies the grounds of discrimination but leave open in which areas. Currently religion or belief, disability, age and sexual orientation are covered by the Employment Equality Directive (2000/78/EC). Racial or ethnic origin is covered by the Racial Equality Directive (2000/43/EC) and gender is covered by the Gender Equality Directive (2006/54/EC). There are challenges also beyond current specified grounds. On some areas there is jurisprudence, e.g. regarding gender identity and other areas there are no court cases. Language as a ground of discrimination and protection can be evoked sometimes when involving elements of ethnicity but it needs to fit the areas of competence. Some Member States has more extensive national legislations though.

Only the Gender Equality Directive (2004/113) refers directly to the concept of goods and services as in the Treaty (services for consideration for certain economic purpose/nature, for reimbursement but doesn’t mean you have to pay for the service). Concept of services used to be wider but has been narrowed down.  The Racial Equality Directive (2000/43) was the first one that brought the coverage of goods and services which are available to the public including housing. This was narrowed down in negotiation within the Council. The reasoning is that discrimination also limits social integration. It applies to both public and private sector but e.g. not to the exercise of public authority.

In January the Commission will launch its report on the two Directives. The Commission is also due to report on the Gender Equality Directive next year.

In 2008 the Commission proposed to new Horizontal Equal-treatment legislation in order to expand to other grounds beyond employment. Five years later we are still in negotiation with the Council, unanimity is required, some Member States is opposing and some have proposed withdrawing the proposal. Some technical progress has been reached but it will not be as ambitious as the previous directives. In the proposal the Commission is trying to be more realistic ‘less ambitious’ in order for Member States to find it possible to adopt.

The negotiations exclude private transactions between private people. A lot of discussions on age and disability, differences on age (e.g. favourable due to young and old). Other grounds have been less in focus (sexual orientation and religion and belief) due to that Member States anticipates costs. Most case law on national level refers to age. Most Member States already provide protection on these grounds beyond employment.

Today we do not have the same momentum as we had in 2000 when the Racial Equality Directive was adopted. Since then we have seen a reduction and Member States are not willing to go as far as thy previously did. They look at the Racial Equality Directive and thought it went too far and therefore made the following Gender Equality Directive more specific. Also the momentum is not the best due to the ending of term for the Commission and the European Parliament. The problems for the other grounds have not yet emerged. Might be hidden at the moment but right now the negotiations are focused on age and disability.

The European Accessibility Act was initially foreseen in 2012 and is now in the 2014 work programme. The Act aims to ensure that people with disability have access to physical environment and services and facilities – where accessibility can be taken into account in public procurement, linked to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

It is important to not only speak about equality in relation to equality legislation but in relation to other legislations, e.g. equality can be a condition for awarding a contract in public procurement.

Both directives that cover goods and services have reference to National Equality Bodies. They are suffering from cuts in resources but are important tools promoting the laws. There isn’t an obligation for employment but fortunately most Member States have given their National Equality bodies the role to raise awareness on all legislation.

Members of Social Platform will be able to access the full presentation in the Minutes of the Working Group on Fundamental Rights November 19, 2013

2013-11-28