Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, three years after the Treaty of Amsterdam was adopted and the famous and much-debated Article 13 was introduced, the Council is proposing two directives to implement the principles of this Treaty. We can only congratulate the Council’s willingness to make progress on this issue, particularly at a time when certain parties of the traditional right are starting to sign agreements with extreme-right movements. This has already happened in France, is now occurring in Austria and may soon happen in Italy. The definition of a minimum European framework for the fight against discrimination is therefore urgently required. The directive on the fight against racial and ethnic discrimination is heading in the right direction. In particular, it provides for the reversal of the burden of proof, the gradual establishment of positive discrimination – more effective than simple theoretical equality – and the recognition of indirect discrimination. All these aspects reveal a clear desire to forge ahead. However, certain shortcomings must be highlighted. Some of these have been raised by our rapporteur, such as the issue of legal proceedings being free of charge for plaintiffs and the necessary extension of the right to take part in court proceedings to groups and associations. There are also two other problems which I must raise. The first is of a general nature. How can the Council consider the issue of racial and ethnic discrimination without being committed to the creation of a comprehensive legislative framework for all discrimination? Singling out one type of discrimination gives the impression that some types of discrimination are less reprehensible than others. This is unacceptable. A second directive on discrimination at work is to be examined shortly. The Council must therefore make haste and propose a draft directive encompassing all types of discrimination. This is absolutely vital as the most excluded are those who suffer several types of discrimination. Protecting them from just one type will only go part-way towards helping them. The second problem concerns the exclusion of religious discrimination from this directive. It is extremely regrettable that religious discrimination was not included with racial and ethnic discrimination as these different types of discrimination are closely linked. For example, how do you define the Jewish identity? Surely the hatred for Jews which remains significant in many countries is due as much to anti-Semitism, and therefore to ethnic origin, as to religious aspects. Discrimination against North African communities in Europe is also two-sided. It may even often be said that the fear of Islam acts as a catalyst for racism towards these communities. Therefore, limiting this directive to racial and ethnic discrimination risks leaving the door open to ambiguities in interpretation with which the courts might struggle to deal. To conclude, it is essential that the Council adopts an integrated approach towards the legal tools to be established in order to apply Article 13 in our daily life. Dividing the fight against discrimination among a number of texts is dangerous for the overall coherence of the anti-discrimination mechanism and therefore weakens it.

Political group: Verts-ALE