Arbejdsmarkedsudvalget 2008-09
KOM (2008) 0426 Bilag 5
Offentligt
Copenhagen, May 7th, 2008
To:
José Barroso, President of the European Commission
Prime Minister Janez Jansa, President of the Council
Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament
Subject: Principle of equal treatment also outside of labour market on
grounds of age, disability, religion, belief and sexual orientation.
Dear Sirs,
We are writing this letter on behalf of Danish anti-discrimination NGO´s to voice
our disappointment of the recent news that the Commission is intending to
propose a directive that only will cover discrimination on the ground of disability
outside of employment and occupation.
This commitment to the ground of
disability is important and necessary. However, a commitment to
legislation on the ground of disability alone is inadequate. It will reinforce a
hierarchy across the grounds. It will not enable the necessary response to
the issue of discrimination and to the experience of so many European
citizens in this regard.
Our hopes were high when we read the Commissions Annual Policy Strategy for
2008, where it was announced that the Commission intended to “… propose new
initiatives designed to prevent and combat discrimination outside of labour
market – based on gender, religion, belief, disability, age and sexual orientation.”
Because it goes without saying that EU’s anti-discrimination legislations have
been a determining factor for Denmark to have laws, regulations and bodies that
protect its citizens from discrimination. However, since EU legislation is limited in
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its scope of protection, so is the Danish, as Denmark only implements the bare
minimum in accordance with the directives.
Denmark’s reluctance to provide legislation to protect all its citizens against
discrimination beyond the required by EU was illustrated when the Prime
Minister, in a letter responding to our request for a general provision against
discrimination, stated that the Danish State had no intention to extend the scope
of protection against discrimination outside of labour market to cover
discrimination on the grounds of religion, belief, disability, age and sexual
orientation because it was not required by EU legislation.
As national NGO´s we have been extremely happy with the development in EU
on the promotion of the principle of equal treatment ever since the adoption of
the Amsterdam Treaty article 13, the so-called “Race equality” and “Employment
framework” directives. We have also benefited from the different EU initiatives.
The most recent initiative being the 2007 European Year for Equal Opportunities
for All. Then why not make use of the momentum and build further by adopting
new legal initiatives to protect all people from all forms of discrimination?
We have to recognise that the work to secure equal opportunities for all in
Europe is only partly completed. We therefore call on you to ensure that the work
to protect all against discrimination gets carried on by proposing a clear directive
to broaden the scope of anti-discrimination for all grounds and policies.
Yours sincerely,
Søren Laursen
Equal Treatment Committee
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On behalf of:
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Stig Langvad, President of the Disabled Peoples Organization Denmark
Holger Kallehauge, President of The Danish Association of Polio- and
Accident Victims (PTU)
Randi Iversen, President of the Women’s Council in Denmark
Fakhra Mohammad, President of The Documentation- and Counseling
Center Against Racial Discrimination
Bashy Quraishy, President of ENAR – European Network against Racism
Ove Christiansen, President of The Danish Association of Senior Citizens
Lissi Rasmussen, President of the Islamic-Christian Study Centre
Kristoffer Petterson, President of The Danish National Association of Gays &
Lesbians