Developing Anti-Discrimination Law in Europe

In many European countries anti-discrimination legislation was reviewed and changed during the last couple of years. This major and unprecedented operation was set in motion with the adoption of two pieces of European legislation in 2000, namely the Racial Equality Directive and the Employment Equality Directive. How these Directives were transposed into national law of the 25 Member States is described in a series of country reports prepared by the European Network of Legal Experts in the non-discrimination field. This Network is established and managed by human european consultancy and the Migration Policy Group on behalf of the European Commission.

The reports were written by independent national experts in each Member State. The information was provided in response to questions set out in a template format which closely followed the provisions of the two Directives. The Network’s scientific board, ground co-ordinators (experts on the Directives’ five discrimination grounds) and content manager read and commented on various drafts of the reports. The writing process also benefited from comments made by lawyers of the European Commission. Member States were also given an opportunity to comment on the final draft of which they made minimal use.

The 25 reports cover the many changes to national law, the putting in place of enforcement mechanisms and the adoption of other measures. They contain information current as of 7 January 2007. As such, they are a valuable source of information on national anti-discrimination law.

This comparative analysis, prepared by Mark Bell (University of Leicester), Isabelle Chopin and Fiona Palmer (Migration Policy Group) compares the information set out in these country reports in a format mirroring that of the country reports themselves and draws some conclusions from the information contained in them.