European Commission

The regulations for racial equality are late

The European Commission is deeply concerned for the fact that the EU members have not passed the new regulations for racial discrimination yet. Many countries missed the deadline (19.07.2003) for changing the legislation. Speaking at the conference "Fight against racial discrimination: from theory to practice", that took place on 21 July in Milan, Ana Dimantopoly, commissioner for employing social works, sent a clear message to the EU governments for the need of introducing the new regulations in the national legislations. She declared: I am disappointed that most of the EU countries did not manage to integrate the racial equality directive into their national legislations. We should not forget that three years ago, it was unanimously passed by the Council".

The Racial equality directive, passed in 2001 by the EU governments, does not allow discrimination on the basis of racial or ethnic origin, including approach to work, conditions at work, amount of the salaries and other rights and benefits related to the job; approach to education and training, benefits in the social and health insurance and approach to public goods and services. The governments also have to establish a body that will provide practical and independent support for the victims of racial discrimination. The countries-candidates for EU membership also have to include the acts from this Directive in their legislations before they become embers of EU. In order to raise the awareness of the rights and responsibilities according to the new regulation and promote the advantages that derive from the racial differences, the Commission has recently launched a five-year campaign for raising the awareness. This campaign will be going on in all EU countries under the slogan "For diversity against discrimination".
 

G.Sh.