Proposals for directives to strengthen the role of equality bodies (see EUROPE 13079/21) are making their first rounds in the EU Council. On Monday 27 February, the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council presented to the dedicated working group a first series of amendments, which EUROPE was able to obtain, inspired by the comments of the national delegations.
More preliminary assessments
The changes proposed by Stockholm differ from the original legislative proposal mainly in the areas of complaint management and conflict resolution.
The Commission foresees, for example, that equality bodies will conduct “preliminary assessments of complaints” in order to inform their proposed follow-up to the case. These assessments are part of the victim support toolkit, as they provide complainants with a first tangible result, but they can also represent an additional burden for organisations, as the European Network of Equality Bodies (Equinet) has pointed out (see EUROPE 13127/15).
The Swedish Presidency intends to remove these requirements for preliminary assessments, while maintaining the requirement that the bodies “inform the complainants [...] whether [...] the complaint will be closed or if there are grounds to pursue it further”.
Dispute resolution
It also proposes to change the possibilities of “amicable settlements” to “alternative dispute resolution”, without the need for the prior agreement of the parties. On the other hand, it removes the clarification that “engaging in such a process shall not prevent the parties from exercising their right of access to court”.
In addition, the Commission’s text gives Member States the possibility to compel third parties or defendants to provide equality bodies with the information necessary to establish the existence of discrimination. However, this information cannot be presented as part of a judicial procedure. While Equinet proposed to extend the obligation to all EU countries, the Member States seem to opting for moving these provisions to the preamble.
Finally, as it stands, the text proposes to remove the guarantee of confidentiality “to whistleblowers and, as far as possible, to complainants” from Article 10 on procedural guarantees.
This first revision of the Commission’s text also addresses other aspects. It suggests, for example, that Member States should be included in the definition of indicators for monitoring the directives, or that the term “effective” should be preferred to “autonomous” to describe the way in which the bodies carry out their mandate.
To read the proposed amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/5ik (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)