EU Warns UK on Equality

posted: 14/12/2009

The government faces legal action by the European Commission for not doing enough to protect people from discrimination at work. This threatens the Equalities Bill now going through Parliament.
 

The European commission says parts of UK law, including provisions on sexual orientation and disability, are inadequate. They fail to properly implement several Equalities Directions signed unanimously by European countries way back in 2002. The EU could take the UK government to the European court of justice.
 

Sexuality : fail
The EU sent the government two official opinions last month, and these include a warning that the law that applies to faith-based organisations, schools and adoption agencies allows far too much discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.
"This could be difficult for the government," said Robin Allen QC, head of Cloisters chambers. "The extent to which religious organisations are exempt from the rules of sexual orientation discrimination is a particularly difficult issue. The government will certainly resist any strengthening to the current law in an election year."
 

HIV Class Actions missed : fail
Other parts of UK law singled out by the EU's equal opportunities commissioner include the lack of a ban on "instructions to discriminate", where a person is discriminated against because of the actions of a third party, and the lack of clear provisions for class actions. Class actions are an important right, particularly for stigmatised groups like people with HIV, who are often very reluctant to make formal complaints. Organisations, like George House Trust, should be able to take class actions on behalf of a group of people to challenge illegal discrimination.
 

"The government has kept promising to address group claims and, as a matter of good practice, lawyers have been saying it should happen. But no one had picked up that failing to do so would breach the EC directive – this came as a total surprise," said Rachel Harfield, an employment law solicitor at Russell Jones & Walker.

UK only EU state to fail on equalities
Last month, the long-awaited equality bill was included in the Queen's speech for a second year and was presumed to be compliant with EU requirements. News of the warning from the commission means the UK is the only European country to have failed to implement two key EU directives on discrimination.
 

"This directive was agreed unanimously by all EU countries in 2002 but, to be effective, it needs to be fully and correctly transposed into national law," said Vladimir Spidla, EU commissioner for equal opportunities. "We call on the UK government to make the necessary changes to its gender equality legislation as soon as possible so as to fully comply with the EU rules."
 

Two months to answer
The government has two months to respond. The general election has to be held within the next six months and Parliament has to finish all business about a month before the election. A spokesman for the government's Equalities Office said: "We take our European legal obligations seriously. We will be studying the reasoned opinions carefully and will reply to the commission in the new year. The equality bill will be continuing its progress through parliament during the fifth session."
 

The criticism will embarrass the government. The bill, which replaces nine existing laws and more than 100 other measures, was intended to end this patchwork mess with a single law.
 

"One of the criticisms of the existing equality legislation is that there are too many pieces of legislation," said Harfield. "The equality bill is supposed to be a consolidation – the last thing the government would want is to introduce an equality bill as it stands, and then have to introduce new legislation further down the line. That would make a mockery of what the bill is supposed to do."
 

Multiple discriminations : Fail

Experts have welcomed many of the bill's provisions, but some see it as a "missed opportunity" for failing to develop the law on equal pay or to allow claims with more than two grounds. This is another issue that affects people with HIV. Many people with HIV tick several equality boxes and discrimination may be because of HIV (disability), sexuality, ethnicity, and gender. Often discrimination may be for more than one of these reasons, but to make a claim at present you can only pick one. That choice is a gamble and Europe says there is no need for this.
 

Allen said: "One of the biggest issues with the equality bill is the attempt to redraw the lines between gay people and evangelicals – there will be concerns that any further demands for changes could interfere with the legislative process."
 

Source

EU, HIV and Protection from Discrimination

posted: 02/06/2009

The European Union is discussing an ‘equal treatment directive’ against discrimination on grounds of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation. While we have this type of protection in the UK, the position is much worse in many other EU countries. The 'directive' would make sure there is no country-lottery (like a post-code lottery) for HIV rights across the Union.

This is one reason why we called yesterday for people to vote in the EU elections for HIV.

AIDS Action Europe joined with the UK’s NAT (National AIDS Trust), the European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG) and the EU’s HIV/AIDS Civil Society Forum (CSF) to campaign for the directive to protect people with HIV from discrimination.

An online Petition attracted 70 NGO signatories from across Europe, including at least one NGO from every member state, and representations have been made to national government representatives, Commissioners and commission officials, other interested advocacy networks and to many Members of the European Parliament.

Council of Ministers will decide

The final decision on the directive rests with the Council of Ministers and there is some time to go before the Council comes to a final decision. But between December 2008 and April 2009 the European Parliament debated the directive.

The EU Parliament has now accepted HIV as part of the draft directive

As a result of extensive lobbying by AIDS Action Europe, as well as by NAT, EATG and CSF members, the European Parliament agreed the amendment to the directive which we believe will provide real protection from discrimination for all people with HIV.
 

More work needs to be done to persuade the Council of Ministers to agree the addition of anti-HIV discrimination protection – but this recent success shows how the EU Parliament does make a real difference for people with HIV and why voting on Thursday is important.

New Euro HIV Policy

posted: 16/12/2008

In 2009 the current EU policy on HIV, called Communicate, will be updated and replaced. The European Commission has started consulting on what it should say. It affects future EU HIV spending decisions.

The policy is for use by European member states, countries which are in the process of joining the EU, and is of interest to neighbouring countries such as Norway and Switzerland. The current policy was for 2006-2009.

As a starter, the EU HIV/AIDS Civil Society Forum held a brainstorm early November on the strengths and weaknesses of the current policy, as well as the key issues that civil society will advocate to get included in the new policy. The report of this meeting of the Civil Society Forum will become available soon.
 

AIDS Action Europe and EATG, as co-chairs of the Civil Society Forum, will develop a strategy to ensure meaningful and wide consultation and involvement of civil society in the development of the new policy. A first draft of the policy is expected February 2009. At that time, AIDS Action Europe and Civil Society Forum members as well as European networks will be invited to participate in this consultation round. The new Communication needs to be approved by all EU Commissioners in September 2009.

Dull maybe, but it brings money

The new European policy is perhaps dull to many people but it does set out a framework for European HIV programmes and funding. Follow developments at Aids Action Europe