According to Article 13 EC, one of the fundamental goals of the European Union is the prevention and combating of discrimination based on, among other grounds, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation. However, EU-wide legal protection is not yet in place to deal with discrimination on these grounds outside the labour market. In 2007, the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All, the European Commission announced that it intended to propose measures in mid-2008 to complete the existing legal framework prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation in employment, occupation and vocational training. Consequently, it launched a public consultation in order to measure public opinion on possible new initiatives in the field of anti-discrimination, which ran from 4 July to 15 October 2007 with a total number of 5,378 responses.