At their meeting in Luxembourg on 2 October 2008, the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) unanimously supported the underlying objective of the new proposal for a directive against discrimination on the grounds of religion and belief, disability, age or sexual orientation in access to social protection, health care, education and access to goods, services and housing. However they expressed concerns over the respect of the subsidiarity principle in areas of national competency, such as social protection, training/education and health.
Strong demand was also made for better clarification of the terminology and many concepts, in particular Article 4 on the non-discriminatory treatment of persons with disabilities. Many Member States requested closer examination of the adaptation of the European text to the UN Convention on rights of people with disabilities.
A majority of delegations consider that the existing text does not offer the required legal security, except for conferring the European Court of Justice with its responsibility of interpreting the provisions on a case by case basis.
Apart from the United Kingdom, Denmark and Spain, which are particularly supportive of this draft directive, all the other delegations said that they would prefer to await further clarification before expressing their point of view. The Czech Republic, which will take over the Presidency at the Council meeting in December, was particularly critical of the proposed legislation, as it had been rejected by both its Senate and government. Germany, another vocal critic, expressed itself in more measured tones but stressed that its position has not changed since last July.
The Council's legal service is preparing an Opinion on the field of application and legal basis of the proposal, which is expected to be crucial in the debate.
The French Presidency is keen to make progress on this draft directive and French Minister for Employment and Equality, Mr Xavier Bertrand, assured his ministerial counterparts that problems regarding structuring national and Community legislation will be taken into account. “The Presidency will continue its work to improve the text. We want a clear road map. The Equality Summit in Paris (29-30 September) demonstrated very high expectations from NGOs, social partners and people”, concluded Mr Bertrand.
AGE and its members welcome the support of the Member States to the Commission’s proposed directive, as this is a significant and welcome step in the fight against discrimination. However, AGE is also concerned that the current text fails to adequately address the rights of older people to equality in areas that impact on them most such as access to financial services and health care. AGE will continue to closely monitor the developments.
The main results of the EPSCO discussions are available here.
Mise à jour le Lundi, 08 Février 2010 13:23
