The two equality directives of 2000: False-twins

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. [...]

[...] Other differences between the two Directives can be less justified and let guess a little weakness of the Framework Directive in comparison with the Racial Equality Directive. Some exceptions less justifiable and source of loss of efficiency Some of the differences made in the provisions of the Framework Directive are, in my mind, the reasons of the loss of efficiency of the Framework Directive in Comparison with the Racial Equality Directive. A difficultly explicable and too broad justification of discrimination on the ground of age: First of all, the Framework Directive introduced a new provision in its article “justification of treatment on grounds of which doesn’t exist in the Racial Equality Directive. [...]