On Wednesday 7 June, the Member States’ deputy ambassadors to the EU (Coreper 1) gave their backing to the general approaches on directives aimed at strengthening equality bodies. Approval was delayed by a week because of the need for “minor clarifications” on the indicators for monitoring legislation.
Indeed, the text presented by the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU to Coreper 1 last week already specified that they should assess “the functioning of the equality bodies” and not “measure the practical effects” of the directives. However, the deputy ambassadors wished to emphasise that these indicators are not “intended for the purpose of ranking or for issuing specific recommendations addressed to individual Member States” by introducing this reference, already present in the recitals, into Article 16.
On other points, the position differs from the European Commission’s proposals, particularly with regard to independence, resources and the judicial and investigative powers granted to equality bodies (see EUROPE 13190/3). The texts will now have to be adopted by the ministers at the ‘Employment and Social Policy’ Council (EPSCO) on 12 June.
In the European Parliament, the Committees on Gender Equality (FEMM) and Employment (EMPL) have just started work and will only be able to present a position on one of the two directives (see EUROPE 13188/24, 13079/21). (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)