Brussels, 20/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - Surrounded by identical "crash test" dummies performing work like robots, Anna Diamantopoulou launched the European campaign "For Diversity- Against Discrimination" to the Press on 16 June (http://www.stop-discrimination.info ). A scenario illustrating extreme discrimination.
"Anti-Islamic incidents have increased in number since 11 September, world poverty is increasing migratory flows, and with enlargement, we are faced with the problem of respect for minorities", said the Commissioner. A set of new laws need to be brought in prohibiting all forms of discrimination, be it on the basis of race, religion, age, disability or sexual orientation, and a European support programme for activities to fight discrimination. This programme will run until 2006, and is funded by the Union to the tune of 100 million EUR. The Commission has also undertaken a five-year information campaign in all Member States of the Union, which, for the first year, will focus on discrimination at the work-place. Two directives on this were adopted in 2000, with cut-off dates of July and December 2003. Only Belgium and Sweden have transposed them sufficiently to date, and the Commissioner is worried that "many States will not respect their obligations".
In support of this, Anna Diamantopoulou presented the results of a Eurobarometer survey on "discrimination in Europe". 82% of respondents said that they were opposed to discrimination, but the majority believes that "a person's ethnic origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation or age can be an obstacle to finding a job". One-fifth of respondents said that they had personally witnessed discrimination on ethnic grounds, ranging between 15% in Ireland to 35% in the Netherlands, but few said they had personally been on the receiving end. Of those who had been discriminated against, age was the reason in most cases, 5%, followed by ethnic origin (3%), religion, physical disability or mental illness (2%) and sexual orientation (1%). "Young people, people with higher education and those on the left of the political spectrum are more likely to report having experienced discrimination". However, these figures are taken from a certain context, as non-Community citizens did not take part in this survey.
A campaign of this type is important as "two-thirds of respondents are unaware of their rights if they are ever discriminated against", said Anna Diamantopoulou. "We are going to work with several people, public bodies, social partners, NGOs (...) Our objective is for each Member State to have an action plan to fight discrimination by the end of the year".