In the absence of unanimity on the issue, on Thursday 20 June the Ministers for Employment and Social Affairs took note of a progress report on the 2008 directive on the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation (see EUROPE 13431/28).
In this progress report dated 14 June, the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council explains the efforts made to achieve the required unanimity. The Presidency has received the support of twenty-four Member States, but Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria continue to have difficulties with this directive.
During a public debate, European Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli, said that discrimination remains “very widespread” in the EU, and the adoption of this directive would send “a very strong message”. The Commissioner is therefore counting on the future Hungarian Presidency to bring this matter to a close.
Spain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France and Poland have also called on the remaining recalcitrant Member States to adopt this legislation, which is also intended to combat racism, antisemitism and xenophobia.
For Poland, this text demonstrates that the EU is not just an economic union, but “a union of values”.
Helen Winter, Germany’s deputy permanent ambassador in Brussels, also deplored her government’s reservations about the text, but said that,“we hope to find solutions in the negotiations”.
“Given the current increase in discrimination and harassment of vulnerable groups, which demonstrates the urgent need to ensure common and horizontal protection of citizens throughout the European Union against discrimination on all protected grounds, the Presidency hopes that additional support can be obtained in the near future, in order to achieve the required unanimity within the EU Council”, the Belgian presidency also summarises in its report.
Since January, it has presented four sets of draft suggestions, with a view to responding to all the concerns expressed by the delegations, “in particular those relating to legal certainty, respect for the principle of subsidiarity and the potential financial impact of the future directive”.
The text has been redrafted to clarify the scope of Member States’ obligations to provide reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities, as distinct from the obligation to ensure accessibility, which had previously been deleted.
The powers of the Member States in the field of education, including the setting of tuition fees and age limits, have been defined more explicitly. The text has been clarified by referring to the wide discretion of Member States in the provision, commissioning and organisation of services of general interest, confirming that variations in the provision of services of general interest between regional or local levels do not in themselves constitute discrimination.
In addition, the transposition period has been reduced to three years compared to the previous draft. Recital 9 has also been reworded to explicitly confirm that a careful assessment has been carried out with regard to the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/cr1 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)