Advancing the EU legal framework for equality and its implementation
During the last decades, and with the approval of the 2000 Directives (Race Equality Directive and the Framework Directive), EU equality and anti-discrimination legislation grew from the ground of gender to other grounds such as ethnic and racial origin and age, disability, sexual orientation and religion or belief. The EU was progressively protecting more and more citizens from discrimination, harassment and violence.
Nonetheless, EU anti-discrimination law does not equally protect all vulnerable groups in Europe. The draft EU “Horizontal Directive”, pending since July 2008 aims to offer more symmetric protection to victims of discrimination and would extend the mandate of Equality Bodies to also cover discrimination based on disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age and the intersectional and multiple discrimination that results from the combination of these grounds. This would be a milestone for building a fairer and more equal Europe.
Equality is a necessity and not a luxury. Strong laws are needed to ensure that all inhabitants of the EU can be protected, especially in times of crisis. We need to progress, taking into account the learnings from this year and the last decades, in constructing a strong, complete and inclusive legislative framework to ensure that no one is left behind.
Online Roundtable: Future of Equality Legislation in Europe
On 14 October 2020 Equinet organized an online roundtable, together with MEP Alice Bah Kuhnke, on the future of equality legislation in Europe. The primary objective was to discuss the EU legal framework for equality and its implementation as well as advancing the adoption of the Horizontal Directive. The roundtable brought together members of the European Parliament and representatives of Equality Bodies to assess the current state of the EU legal framework for equality and identify ways of improving it. By focusing on potential areas of improvement in implementing the existing equality directives, there was particular focus on the Horizontal Directive and identifying possible future actions to advance equality and non-discrimination in Europe. Find a summary of the discussions in our Synthesis Report here.
We welcomed input from the following speakers:
Members of the European Parliament
- MEP Alice Bah Kuhnke, Vice-President, Greens/EFA in the European Parliament
- MEP Robert Biedroń, Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, Poland
- MEP Malin Björk, Group of the European United Left – Nordic Green Left, Sweden
- MEP Radka Maxová, Renew Europe Group, Czechia
- MEP Maria Walsh, Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats), Ireland
European Commission
- Mr Silvan Agius, Cabinet expert for Commissioner of Equality Helena Dalli
Equality Bodies’ Representatives
- Ms Tena Šimonovic Einwalter, Chair of Equinet Executive Board and Deputy Ombudswoman of Office of the Ombudswoman, Croatia
- Mr Patrick Charlier, co-director of Unia (Interfederal Centre for Equal Opportunities), Belgium
- Mr Bernhard Franke, acting Head of the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency, Germany
- Ms Sandra Konstatzky, Director of the Ombud for Equal Treatment at the Federal Chancellery, Austria
- Ms Sophie Latraverse, Director of Legal Expertise to the General Secretariat for the Defender of Rights, Defender of Rights, France
- Mr Martin Mörk, Deputy Ombudsman and Head of Litigation, Equality Ombudsman, Sweden
Video of the Roundtable
Further Information
- The Event Report is available here in PDF or in Word format without images here.
- Thanks to the European Union of the Deaf, you can access a summary of the Roundtable in sign language here.
- Download the Agenda here.
- See the speakers bios here.
- The event was livestreamed on our Facebook page.
- Please contact Jone Elizondo Urrestarazu (jone.elizondo@equineteurope.org) if you have any questions regarding this event.
