2007, the "European Year of Equal Opportunities for All" in the European Union ended a few months ago, stressing on the question of the current anti-discrimination law in the Union. This initiative of the Commission took place in a general movement of the European Union toward a better fight against discrimination which really began with the adoption of the two Directives of 2000. With its creation the Commission wanted to put an accent on the anti-discrimination policy of the Union and to make it more effective and inform people about it. The first step toward the creation was taken in 2005 when the first observations on the implementation of the Directives adopted in 2000 could be made. These two Directives, more precisely, their common legal basis, Article 13 EC created is, in my mind, the source of the real increase of anti-discrimination law in the European Union, it showed a real will of intensifying the fight against discrimination.
[...] Thus, the European Equality law didn't' wait for the Article 13 and the adoption of the two Directives of 2000 to develop. But these two Directives still are a turning point for the Equality law of the European Union. Indeed, first of all, they complete the pre-existent equality law in such a way that only both of them cover the grounds of discrimination of the Article 13 not already dealt with. Moreover, their similarities due to their common legal basis and the adoption of the Framework Directive on the model of the Racial Equality Directive reveal a common will and innovations. [...]
[...] In conclusion, the two Directives of 2000 have the same function of filling the gap of the pre-existing equality law, have the same innovative legal basis and the circumstances made them have the same main elements from the definition of discrimination to the mechanisms of enforcement and implementation. They, at the first sight, seem to only have as a difference their scope and grounds of discrimination prohibited. Thus, our first impression was that they the same just in different contexts, it would have meant the same efficiency. [...]
[...] In conclusion, the two Directives of 2000 have been adopted in the context of an equality Community law existing but having failures. Indeed, the Community developed its social policy in the 60's in reaction of the failure of the market and its equality law came after. The two Directives of 2000 have two different scopes which correspond to two lacks of the equality law pre-existing. On the one hand, the anti-racism policy began to appear in the 90's while today it is a central point of the equality law of the community mostly thanks to the Directive 2000/43. [...]
[...] Two Directives with the same broad definition of discrimination The Article two of both the Racial Equality and the Framework Directives is titled: “Concept of discrimination” and define “discrimination” and “equal treatment”. The common legal basis of the two Directives only states: “take appropriate action to combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion, or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation”. Thus, it gives a list of grounds of discrimination that shall be prohibited but doesn't give any definition of “discrimination” letting this liberty to the Directives. [...]
[...] In conclusion, with the same legal basis and the use by the Framework Directive of the main elements of definition, enforcement and implementation of the Racial Equality Directive, we could think that the two Directives are so similar that their efficiency is the same. Nevertheless, the few provision they don't have in common makes a real difference Nevertheless, the differences between the two Directive seem to reveal that the weakness of the Framework Directive in comparison with the Racial Equality Directive As we have just seen the two Directives have the same basis and a lot of main elements in common. [...]
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