Brussels, 11/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - In a judgement returned on 4 May, the Court of Justice states that Austria has breached European legislation in its failure so far to transpose the European directive banning all forms of discrimination on the grounds of race or ethnic origin (directive 2000/43/EC) into its national legislation. The Member States of the EU had until 19 July 2003 to do this, with the exception of the ten new Member States, which had simply to guarantee that their legislation was in line with existing directives when they joined the EU on 1 May 2004. Further to this judgement, the Commissioner for Equal Opportunities, Vladimir Spidla, launched an urgent appeal to Austria to “move quickly to meet all their obligations in this area, which is vital for the protection of fundamental rights in the EU”, adding that “this directive was agreed unanimously by the Member States and adopted in 2000, and the deadline for implementing it was 2003. The Member States have now had five years to put this EU law into their national legislation”.
It is worth noting that this directive bans all forms of discrimination in various sectors, including employment, vocational training, education, social security, healthcare, access to goods and services and housing. It also requires each Member State to appoint an institute to promote equality of treatment and to provide aid to the victims of racial discrimination. Information: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/fundamental_rights/index_en.htm.