In Strasbourg on the evening of Tuesday 22 October, the vast majority of MEPs declared their support for Finland's EU Council Presidency to give new impetus to the horizontal directive on equal treatment, which has been blocked in the Council of the EU for more than 10 years.
All of the political groups (EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens-EFA and GUE/NGL), with the notable exception of the far-right ID group and the ECR group (no MEPs from which have spoken on the subject), have called for the directive to be revived in order to ensure that there is greater uniformity of rights between European citizens with regard to discrimination, as strongly emphasised by Magid Magid (Greens-EFA, UK). Maria Walsh (EPP, Ireland) called for a roadmap to enable the text to be completed. Jiří Pospíšil (EPP, Czech Republic) asked if, because the proposal was made so long ago, the directive might not need to be revised to take into account changes at both national level and in society.
In her reply to MEPs, Tytti Tuppurainen, the EU Council representative, said she expected significant input from Thursday 24 October's discussion on the matter at the Employment and Social Affairs Council (see EUROPE 12353/12). She reminded MEPs that one of the main difficulties concerning the directive is its legal basis, which requires unanimity in the Council of the EU. Věra Jourová, the Commissioner for Justice, Consumer Protection and Gender Equality, said she had high hopes for tomorrow's discussions. She acknowledged that she was disappointed that the matter had not progressed under her mandate and stressed that there already existed one option, which she clearly believed was inadequate: enhanced cooperation between Member States. In conclusion, she said that “this is an option that is acceptable at the procedural level, but is totally wrong at the moral level”.
After the text was presented by the European Commission in 2008, the European Parliament quickly adopted a resolution (see EUROPE 9877/31), but the text remains blocked in the Council of the EU, where unanimity is required (EUROPE 11217/7). The EU Council representative acknowledged to MEPs that this was “a difficult requirement to meet”.
President-elect Ursula von der Leyen intends to make progress with the fight against discrimination and has assigned this task to Helena Dalli, the Commissioner-designate for Equality. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)