17/02/2025 (Agence Europe) – Civil society organisations are continuing to mobilise against the removal of the Equal Treatment Directive from the European Commission’s 2025 work programme. Following the concerns expressed by AGE Platform Europe (see EUROPE 13579/21), nine organisations published a statement on Monday 17 February urging the Commission to reconsider this decision or to propose solid legislation. Among the signatories, the European Disability Forum said in a press release that it had been “taken by surprise”, as had “the Parliament and the Polish Presidency of the Council”, and that it had asked the latter to “organise an urgent public meeting” so that the Commission could “explain” its choice and so that the Member States could reach an agreement on this text, which has been under discussion since 2008 due to a lack of unanimity, before the proposal was withdrawn within six months, as announced in the annex to the programme (https://aeur.eu/f/fjo ). Declaration: https://aeur.eu/f/fjm (NP)