On Wednesday 30 August, Sirpa Pietikäinen (EPP, Finnish) and Marc Angel (S&D, Luxembourgish) will present their position on one of the directives aimed at strengthening equality bodies to the European Parliament’s Employment (EMPL) and Gender Equality (FEMM) Committees (see EUROPE 13188/24).
Although the European Commission has presented two texts, the European Parliament will only be co-legislator on the one concerning gender equality in employment (see EUROPE 13079/21). As far as the second directive is concerned, MEPs will ‘only’ have to give their consent to the EU Council’s text.
Independence
Despite European anti-discrimination legislation and a recommendation on equality bodies (see EUROPE 12047/18), the rapporteurs believe that “strong minimum standards” are still needed to ensure a sufficient and consistent level of protection across the EU.
In particular, they stress the need for organisations and their staff to be independent. For them, and contrary to the Council of the EU (see EUROPE 13199/3), this means that they “must never be part of a ministry, other governmental body or a body taking instructions from the government”.
This also means that Member States must ensure that they have “adequate funding that corresponds accordingly to the amount and nature of tasks of the equality body, as well as stable working contracts for their staff”, say MEPs.
Legal action
The rapporteurs also stress that these bodies are effective when they can take legal action.
They are thus defending their ability to act as a party to proceedings, to submit observations and to initiate or participate in proceedings on behalf of one or more victims, but also their ability to initiate proceedings in their own name in the case of a collective redress or where no plaintiff is bringing an action themselves.
At the same time, they are calling for equality bodies to be able to conduct alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, such as mediation or conciliation processes. This, they explain, would give the parties access to “a quick, affordable, out-of-court resolution of disputes”.
Scope
The rapporteurs also propose extending the scope of the directive to include multiple (or “intersectional”) discrimination to take account of “changes in society”. They point out that the EU Court of Justice has ruled that the principle “of equal treatment of men and women cannot be limited to discrimination based on the fact that a person is of one or other sex”, but also to gender expression or identity.
Finally, Ms Pietikäinen and Mr Angel call on the Commission to draw up a list of common indicators to be monitored to ensure that organisations enjoy their rights and to issue recommendations to Member States in cases where “it notes concerning developments” in discrimination. At the same time, Member States must ensure that organisations are able to cooperate with each other and with private and public bodies.
The draft report: https://aeur.eu/f/8ak (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)