Brussels, 18/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - A European conference on discrimination is to be held in Milan on Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 July, under the Italian Presidency of the EU, on the subject "Fighting discrimination: from theory into practice". The Italian Minister for Social Affairs, Robert Maroni, is to chair the conference, which will be attended by Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou, government representatives, academics, experts, local and regional authorities, NGOs and the social partners.
The Milan conference takes place as part of the EU strategy to fight all discrimination on the basis of race, ethnic origin, religion or beliefs, disability, age or sexual orientation. It will look in particular at discrimination in the workplace, access to public services and the problems faced by second-generation immigrants. There will also be a comparative analysis at European level of how legal provisions and good practice in terms of fighting discrimination in all its forms are being implemented. The work will be split into three workshops focusing on the following themes: 1) fighting discrimination in the workplace- the role of the social partners; 2) ethnic minorities and immigrants - access to education, training and employment for the second generation; 3) the local dimension- access to public services.
In her opening address, Anna Diamantopoulou will take the opportunity to send out "a clear message to the Member States that they must immediately transpose the directive on racial equality into their national legislation". The Commissioner will express her concern that the Commission has still not received any notification from the Member States of the full transposition of this directive into national law, although the deadline for so doing was 19 July 2003. Furthermore, the directive forbidding racial discrimination in the workplace was adopted unanimously by the Council of Social Affairs Ministers of the EU on 6 June 2000 in Luxembourg. Once the directive entered into force, the Member States had three years to take the necessary measures to implement it. This, says the Commissioner, is far from being the case. The ten future Member States must also transpose the directive into their national legislation before their accession to the EU on 1 May 2004.
The directive on racial equality forbids any discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin. It covers many fields within employment and training, education, social protection (including social security and healthcare), social benefits and the provision of goods and services and access to them, including housing. It also obliges all Member States which have not yet done so to institute bodies to promote equal treatment, and to provide independent assistance to victims of discrimination.