Council adopts EU legislation to strengthen the role of equality bodies to combat discrimination

The two new Drirectives should improve the effectiveness and guarantee the independence of these bodies to promote equal treatment, combat discrimination and provide assistance to victims, including on the basis of ethnic origin.

After a process lasting several years, on 7 May the Council of Europe formally adopted two directives aimed at strengthening the role of equality bodies across the EU in combating discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation by setting common EU-wide minimum requirements for equality bodies.

These two pieces of legislation represent a major step forward in the fight against all forms of discrimination, including on the basis of ethnic origin/ antigypsyism. We hope that their transposition into national law and implementation will allow for their effective application.

The new rules adopted should improve the effectiveness and guarantee the independence of these bodies to achieve their objective of promoting equal treatment, combating discrimination and providing assistance to victims. These new directives aim to address the challenges faced by many equality bodies, particularly in terms of resources, independence and powers to carry out their functions.

The two Directives, proposed by the European Commission on December 2022, are as follows:

a proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on standards for equality bodies in the field of equal treatment and equal opportunities between women and men in matters of employment and occupation, with Article 157 TFEU as the legal basis (ordinary legislative procedure)
a proposal for a Council directive on standards for equality bodies in the field of equal treatment between persons irrespective of their racial or ethnic origin, equal treatment in the field of employment and occupation between persons irrespective of their religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation, equal treatment between women and men in matters of social security and in the access to and supply of goods and services, with Article 19(1) TFEU as the legal basis (consent procedure)

The Directives establish common EU-wide minimum requirements for equality bodies in a number of areas:

Enhanced competences to combat discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, disability, age and sexual orientation in the area of employment, and discrimination based on sex in the area of social security
A legal requirement for equality bodies to be independent from external influence, with regard to their internal structure, accountability, staffing and organisational matters;
A legal requirement to ensure the adequacy of resources (human, technical and financial) to carry out their functions, which must be sufficient and stable
Increased powers to conduct inquiries (that enables equality bodies to carry out fact-finding, cooperating with the relevant public bodies for that purpose)
Increased powers to engage in alternative dispute resolution in discrimination cases, in line with national law and practice, which makes it possible to work from a restorative justice perspective;
A requirement for public institutions to consult equality bodies on matters related to discrimination, and for equality bodies to be empowered to carry out activities to prevent discrimination and promote equal treatment, for example, by promoting positive action and equality mainstreaming
Awareness-raising among the general population, so that the fight against discrimination can also be tackled from a preventive, not just a reactive, approach;
Cooperation between equality bodies in different Member States, allowing for learning from best practice in promoting equal treatment.

Next steps

During the next two years, Member States must adapt their national legislation to the provisions of the directives.

Background

Equality bodies were set up in application of various directives adopted in the early 2000s, including Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin. This is a fundamental regulation to achieve effectiveness in the fight against all forms of discrimination, including antigypsyism.

On 7 December 2022, the Commission (Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli) published a proposal for a directive on standards for equality bodies in the field of equal treatment between persons irrespective of their racial or ethnic origin, equal treatment in the field of employment and occupation between persons irrespective of their religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation, equal treatment between women and men in matters of social security and in the access to and supply of goods and services.

This proposal was submitted together with a parallel proposal on standards for equality bodies in the field of equal treatment and equal opportunities between women and men in matters of employment and occupation.

The Council reached a general approach on 12 June 2023. Meanwhile, on 12 December 2023, the Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on the parallel proposal, which has been confirmed by EU member states’ representatives.

With the aim of ensuring maximum consistency between the two directives, the Council decided to adjust the text of its original general approach in order to align it with the parallel proposal.