The European ministers responsible for social affairs debated, on Monday 12 June, the horizontal directive on equal treatment at the EU ‘Employment and Social Affairs’ Council (EPSCO). A debate called for by the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU in an attempt to break the deadlock on this issue, which has been blocked since 2008, but with limited success, as positions between Member States continued to diverge at the end of the meeting (see EUROPE 13190/2).
Contrasting positions
Eleven Member States (Estonia, Lithuania, Portugal, Ireland, the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Finland, Latvia and Spain) have said they are prepared to support the proposed directive as it stands, arguing that it is time for European governments to “take responsibility”.
On the contrary, Austria, Italy and Poland were particularly reluctant. In particular, these countries have called for clarification of definitions such as “discrimination on multiple grounds” and “intersectional discriminations”, as well as a better examination of the economic consequences of the directive.
More broadly, the Austrian minister, Martin Kocher, stressed that a “sectoral approach has already proven its worth at the EU level”, in that it enables “tailor-made legal anti-discrimination provisions” to be drawn up, thereby calling into question the very need for horizontal legislation on the subject.
Lastly, 11 Member States (Croatia, Denmark, Malta, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovenia, Cyprus, Slovakia and Greece) considered that more negotiations were needed to achieve the required unanimity. A majority said they were ready to find concrete solutions acceptable to all 27 Member States. The German government, for its part, has not yet decided on its new position on the text.
Modernising the text?
Several Member States, including Denmark and Bulgaria, have also called for the draft directive to continue to be consistent with international, European and national legislative frameworks. Thus, while reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities was already at the heart of negotiations on the directive during the Portuguese and Czech Presidencies, a majority of ministers insisted on the need to respect the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (see EUROPE 13071/17).
The Danish minister, Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen, also questioned the possible need to modernise the text. Issues relating to the rights of LGBTQI+ people, for example, have evolved since 2008, she pointed out. It is also for this reason that Luxembourg is arguing for the inclusion of two new grounds of discrimination, namely those based on gender identity and sexual characteristics.
Present at the discussion, the Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli, urged EU countries not to abandon negotiations, stressing that the horizontal directive would fill gaps in the EU’s current ‘anti-discrimination’ arsenal. It will not only cover a wide range of grounds for discrimination, but also put them on an equal footing. In April, the European Parliament also called on the Council of the EU to bring this dossier to a successful conclusion (see EUROPE 13165/6).
See the progress report on the Swedish Presidency: https://aeur.eu/f/7fr (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)