seminar | www.non-discrimination.net

Legal Seminar 2012 - Equality Law for Everyone: Challenges Ahead

On 26 November 2012 the fifth yearly legal seminar of the European Network of Legal Experts in the Non-Discrimination Field was organised in cooperation with the European Network of Legal Experts in the field of Gender Equality (managed by the Faculty of Law at Utrecht University). The seminar attracted 161 participants, representatives of the European Commission, EU Member States governments, Equality Bodies and EU-umbrella organisations. The feedback from the participants, collected through a satisfaction survey (PDF 76 kB) resulted in a good rating.

read complete article

Workshop on Pregnancy and Maternity Discrimination

The following issues had been discussed:

There are two different approaches possible towards pregnancy and maternity, which can be from a discrimination perspective or from a health and safety perspective. However the protection offered from the second angle bears the risk of overprotecting women workers out of the labour market, which can possibly lead to discrimination (do too many rights create discrimination - bullying and mobbing issues). EU law regarding pregnancy and maternity has coincided with both approaches, but health and safety measures have never been defined or examined in the light of anti-discrimination to check whether they were in line with the equality directives. Consequently, protective health and safety measures and anti-discrimination should go hand-in-hand. According to the Court of Justice, the obligation of health and safety cannot be taken into consideration in a detrimental manner to the pregnant worker. The 2008 proposal for a new pregnancy directive addressing those issues is currently blocked as it stands. In addition, current protection specifically relates to pregnancy but it should also be combined with special parental rights or autonomous rights for mothers and fathers. Fathers are seen as key in combating stereotypes and achieving equality.

read complete article

Workshop on Age Discrimination in Employment

For related report please see – Age and employment

The following issues had been discussed:

Age offers a specific protection anchored in the implementation of the exception to the prohibition of differential treatment enshrined in the Employment Equality Directive, which was justified by its special status in labour policies and working life a few decades ago. Direct discrimination on grounds of age can therefore be justified. Most states have implemented the justification principle laid down in Article 6(1) of the directive in broad terms (with a very wide range of methods of transposition), but they did not review age limitations laid down in pre-existing legislation. Case decisions have subsequently allowed to identify key concepts as regards legitimate aims. The list of legitimate aims must not be pre-defined (some Member states have open lists, or list of examples) but the legislation must allow identification in order to then assess the aim. Finally, it must not be purely individual but must show labour policy purposes. By contrast, there has been more uniformity in transposition with regard to occupational pension scheme laid down in Article 6(2) of the directive.

read complete article

Legal Seminar 2011: Approaches to Equality and Non-discrimination Legislation inside and outside the EU

On 4 October 2011 the fourth yearly seminar of the Network was organised in cooperation with the European Network of Legal Experts in the field of Gender Equality (managed by the Faculty of Law at Utrecht University). The seminar attracted 158 participants, representatives of the European Commission, EU Member States governments, Equality Bodies and European NGOs. The feedback from the participants, collected through a satisfaction survey (PDF 76 kB)resulted in a good rating.

read complete article

Legal Seminar 2009 - On the implementation of EU law on equal opportunities and anti-discrimination

For the second time the yearly seminar of the Network was organised in cooperation with the European Network of Legal Experts in the field of Gender Equality (managed by the Faculty of Law of Utrecht University). The seminar, which took place in Brussels on 6 October 2009, attracted 185 participants, representatives of the European Commission, EU Member States governments, Equality Bodies and European NGOs.

The objective of the Legal Seminar was to provide the participants with an opportunity to exchange views on the transposition and implementation of EU equality and anti-discrimination Directives and to discuss particular issues of discrimination. The programme (PDF 81 kB) of the seminar included both plenary sessions and parallel workshops.

The feedback from the satisfaction survey (PDF 183 kB) resulted in a good overall rating of the organisation, the speakers and the discussion in the workshops.

read complete article

Workshop on the recent CJEU Case-Law

The following issues had been discussed:

The question of burden of proof was debated, in the light of the recent Meister case, in particular the impact on presumption against the employer, the interaction with national rules on evidence and the interaction of EU law with national data protection rules (to invoke data protection rules rather than anti-discrimination law seems more effective in some cases).
In the context of the relationship between EU anti-discrimination and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, would a horizontal application of Article 21 be possible? Answers provided pointed at the provision which seems to operate in the same way as Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights and therefore cannot be invoked separately but in conjunction with other provisions. There is consequently no direct effect, but the possibility to invoke the Charter exists in light of the principle of primacy under EU law. This being said, it is often a question of invocability rather than a problem of direct effect as such.

read complete article

Workshop on the ECrtHR’s Case-Law

The following issues had been discussed:

Both courts, the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union operate from different legal systems as regards the equality and non-discrimination principles. For instance Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights relates to violation of rights under the Convention providing an open list of non-discrimination grounds, whereas Article 19 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union provides for a closed list.

read complete article

Workshop on Religious Discrimination in Employment

For related report please see – Religion and belief: discrimination in employment

The following issues had been discussed:

There is a lack of case law from the Court of Justice of the European Union, whereas we need rulings to guide us on how to address religious discrimination. The reasons behind the lack of court decisions may be the weakness of civil society to address religious discrimination and the fact that national courts are unwilling to refer questions for preliminary ruling to the CJEU because of the sensitiveness of this issue.

read complete article

Legal Seminar 2010 Making Equality Rights Work in Practice

On 9 November 2010 the third yearly seminar of the Network was organised in cooperation with the European Network of Legal Experts in the field of Gender Equality (managed by the Faculty of Law at Utrecht University). The seminar attracted 137 participants, representatives of the European Commission, EU Member States governments, Equality Bodies and European NGOs.

read complete article

Legal seminar 2008

On 25 November 2008 a legal seminar, jointly organised in Brussels with the European Network of Legal Experts in the Field of Gender Equality attracted 165 participants from the Member States (both government representatives and representatives of the equality bodies), European NGOs, the Commission and both networks. Workgroup sessions were organised on: