A European Commission proposal to implement equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation is on the agenda of the EU Council Working Party on Social Questions, which will meet on Friday 30 September.
Stalled in the EU Council since 2008, the Directive needs unanimity to be approved. However, it continues to face resistance due to implementation costs, lack of legal clarity and subsidiarity issues (see EUROPE 12356/16).
The crossroads of reasonable accommodation
The last compromise text was presented in June 2021 by the Portuguese Presidency (see EUROPE 12740/19). Among other things, the Presidency had proposed to introduce temporary exemptions from the obligation to provide reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities. In its progress report, it stated that this was a response to “long-standing […] concerns” about the costs and time needed to make these changes. Already then, delegations were reluctant to introduce these temporary exemptions and felt that they needed further consideration. On Friday 30 September, the Czech Presidency will present the results of these new reflections initiated during the Slovenian Presidency. EUROPE has obtained the compromise text in which the Presidency proposes to remove the Articles on temporary exemptions.
According to a document received by EUROPE, a majority of delegations once again opposed the introduction of these exemptions in the text. In their view, not only does the proposed Directive already contain safeguards, but such an exemption could be incompatible with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Finland was also concerned that the Article instructed the Commission to assess these exemptions according to criteria that were considered unclear.
On the contrary, the Bulgarian and Romanian delegations supported the idea of “exploring the suggested exemption”, while recognising “the need for further work” to ensure that it is compatible with the CRPD. Latvia, Italy and Lithuania have in turn been more open to the temporary exemption. While the first country stresses the need for flexibility in the face of the financial burden that would result from the Directive, the other two defend an exemption that would be limited in duration and targeted.
Longer deadlines
Another point of contention is the transposition deadlines. Austria and Luxembourg have thus highlighted the potential need to introduce additional deadlines for national legislation to implement reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities. The Czech Presidency has thus introduced the possibility of receiving an additional transposition period of 2 years in its compromise text. If this additional period is granted, the total transposition period would be extended to 6 years.
See the Member States’ comments: https://aeur.eu/f/3bw
See the compromise text presented to the Working Party by the Czech Presidency: https://aeur.eu/f/3bx (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)