News

On April 25-26 the Fundamental Rights Platform meeting brought together participants of the Fundamental Rights Platform who cooperate with over 300 civil society organisations working on a variety of fundamental rights issues across the EU. Several of Social Platform members participated.

Social Platform (Annica Ryngbeck, Policy Officer) did a short intervention from the floor when the Equal Treatment Directive Article 19 was discussed during a panel on ‘fostering anti-discrimination policies in the EU’ reinforcing many of the points also made by Raul Romeva I Rueda (EP Rapporteur). Also in the panel: Mr O’Briain (Chair of the Council WP) and Mr Juan Gonzalez-Mellizo (Team Leader Non discrimination policies, DG Justice, the Commission). The key points Social Platform made:

•     I won't argue for why we want the Directive and a complete legislation that protects people against discrimination within as well as outside employment – most in the audience are well aware of that – but I would like to make a few points on the three main arguments against:
•     There is a lack of political will: But from whom we don’t really know. We know that we want it, the Parliament, the Trade Unions, Amnesty International and the Open Society Foundations etc. We also know that the Commission wants it and a large majority of Member States declared back in 2008 that they wanted it. So who is it that doesn’t want it? And why?
•     There are legal uncertainties and issues of proportionality and subsidiarity – in other words all questions about whether the EU has competence or not to adopt this law. How come we could adopt the Race Equality Directive in 2000 but today when we call for the same legal protection for other grounds we can’t? If the EU was competent in 2000 it is still competent now. This is not a new piece of legislation; this is a continuation of previous one. We simply ask for consistency and coherence.
•     ‘It is not a good time to introduce more legislation’ (because of the economic crisis). We ask: What are the costs of not investing in equality? What are the costs of allowing discrimination in relation to education and services which then excludes people from equal opportunities to get a job and contribute to society? Reducing and preventing inequalities through legislative measures is a powerful tool for policy makers. An Equal Treatment directive is not the only way but it is the first step towards equality – it’s the beginning not the end.
•     The role of civil society: We (people) want the directive and we can support the EU Presidencies in their work by providing our expertise (e.g. there are a lot of misconceptions about accessibility while for example European Disability Forum very well know what their constituency on local and national level expects – and their expectations are reasonable) – But in order for us to support– we have to have a clear understanding of what are the problems in the texts of the directive that are being discussed. Unfortunately we no longer receive any detailed information about the continuing negotiations. We have previously enjoyed an open and constructive working relationship with certain Presidencies that enabled us to support their work by providing our expertise. This approach should be reintroduced.

The complete report from the FRP meeting can be found on their website including a 'Harvesting letter' putting together the main outcomes from the meeting.