Commission’s implementation report on EU equality law – a lost opportunity

On January 17 the Commission presented its report on member states implementation of the Employment Equality Directive and Race Equality Directive (both adopted in 2000). The report shows that 'national authorities still need to make sure they provide effective protection to victims of discrimination on the ground. Key challenges include a lack of public awareness of rights and underreporting of discrimination cases.

It's regretful to see that the Commission has not seized the opportunity, when reporting on the two existing directives, to link the reports to the need for member states to close the gap in protection against discrimination beyond employment and adopt the 'Article 19' Equal Treatment Directive proposal from 2008 (see Social Platform statement on July 2, 2013) . The Article 19 Equal Treatment Directive is briefly mentioned once but is nowhere to be found in the conclusions or the recommendations to member states. Social Platform and our member's still call for the EU Presidencies to continue working on the Directive but without strong support from the Commission it is a hard battle to fight. The Greek Presidency will present its progress report on the Article 19 Directive to the Council on June 19.

The Commission recommends member states  to:

  • Continue to raise public awareness of anti-discrimination rights and focus efforts on those most at risk, involving employers and trade unions. The Commission provides funding to support such activities and has published a practical guide for victims of discrimination
  • Facilitate reporting of discrimination for victims by improving access to complaints mechanisms. National equality bodies have a crucial role to play and the Commission will continue to support the networking of equality bodies
  • The Commission’s guide for victims includes specific guidance on how to present and pursue a discrimination claim, while the Commission funds training for legal practitioners and NGOs representing victims of discrimination in how to apply EU equality law.
  • Address the specific discrimination faced by Roma as part of their national strategies for Roma integration, including by implementing the Commission’s guidance

Read more and download the report on the Commission's website

 

2014-01-20