European Union Law - Essay Example

"Rather than actively promoting equality between human beings, European Union Law is limited to merely combating discrimination" Critically Discuss Introduction In 2005, France and Holland rejected the project of a common Constitution for all the member states of the European Union. The reasons and consequences of this refusal are various: contesting vote against European leaders, fear of a globalized world, disproval of the enlargement of the Union.1 However, this discontentment of the voters towards a Constitution shall not wipe out the progressive efforts that the European Union made to promote equality between human beings throughout the years. In 1993, the twelve members agreed in Copenhagen2 on values that each state should respect: Democracy, State of Rights, Human Rights, and Market Economy. Although the European Union has been concerned with discrimination issues since its inception, it was not until 1997, when the Treaty of Amsterdam3 amended the Treaty of Rome, that anti-discrimination was included as a basic founding principle of the Union. Than, another step was made in 2000 with the Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union4 which introduced the notion of equality and non-discrimination as fundamental rights which should be respected by every State.. Since the project of Constitution5, the notions of gender equality and of the respect of the minorities have been introduced. Furthermore, to become a member of the Union, it is necessary to promote all of these values. In our essay we will focus on these values and we will analyze if the European Union is rather promoting equality between human beings or merely combating discrimination. On this first part, we will discuss one of the principal issues regarding discrimination in the European Union: Gender Equality, through the use of case examples and the description of the policy of the quotas. One of the most important examples of successful gender equality in the European Union today may be the long waited access to politics for women. Belgian Environment, Sustainable Development and Consumer affairs Minister Van den Bossche accessed her position in Parliament thanks to gender quota according Amanda Ripley in her special report about gender equality in Time Europe.6 Taking the example of Belgium, the percentage of women in the lower House of Representatives has risen from 23% in 1999 to 35% in 2003. Nevertheless, the problem does not exist within the politics of quotas but in the mentality of the people: "They insist that France's largest parties failed to meet the quota requirements because powerful men didn't want to relinquish their positions to women. "There is still a lot of machismo," says Anne Hidalgo, a Socialist Party (PS) member who is also deputy mayor of Paris and a city councilwoman."7 When we are dealing with gender equality quotas and the policy of the European Union regarding this subject, we are only facing a European Union Directive aiming to put an end to gender discrimination (COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation8) but there is an absolute lack of promotion dedicated to change the ideas that the population may have regarding women access to higher positions in the public or the private sector. Naturally, the legislation is necessary to make it happen. In "Spain plans to ban sex discrimination at work" from Leslie Crawford9, the consequences of Spain proposed law which would oblige companies with more than 250 workers to introduce "equality plans" aimed at eliminating discrimination against women in pay, promotion and benefits had an echo on the European Union which stated that "a new European institute for gender network of national gender equality bodies to monitor and fight discrimination on equality would be up and running in January next year, while it also promised to fund a grounds of sex in member states." It is disturbing to observe when facing such an important issue like as woman discrimination in terms of wages and access to employment, the European Union only proposal is to "monitor and fight" i.e. observation and legislative repression. However, it would not be justified to deny the European Union efforts to actively promote equality between human beings. In the Article 13 of the Treaty of Amsterdam10, two directives were established to positively tackle the discrimination issue: the Employment Directive - requires member states to make discrimination unlawful on grounds of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation in the areas of employment and training - and the Race Directive - requires member states to make discrimination on grounds of racial or ethnic origin unlawful in the areas of employment, training, education, access to social security and health care, social advantages, access to goods and services, including housing - which gave the same amount of protection to anyone working or traveling in all the member states. But these directives would prove useless if there was not a work made on the field to defend their legitimacy. This is exactly the reason why these directives were associated to an Action Programme which began in 2001 and should end this year and allocated 100 million euros to fund practical action by member states to promote racial equality in all areas covered by both of the directives. One of these campaigns, "For Diversity. Against Discrimination" was launched in June 2003. The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness about people's rights to protection against discrimination and to highlight the positive benefits of diversity. Nevertheless, the more disturbing in this entire issue is the lack of transparency and practical answers from the European Union. The will to put an end to all discriminations can not be argued. We have seen throughout this essay that the European Union has signed treaties, redacted directives and laws fighting discrimination and establishing quotas to help some members of the population to access jobs. This is actually the main issue, as the European Union recognized that there should not be any discrimination, it acknowledges that a part of the population is not equal to the other part. In consequence, the values that the European Union is promoting - obviously noble - are creating a favoring environment for unfair policies aiming to equality. In France for example, the government proposed to establish a charter of diversity, therefore putting in practice a "positive discrimination" for employment. When asked about the efficiency of the resolution, the French sociologist Jean-Franois Amadieu11 answers that this would ultimately lead to other discriminations among minorities and that "positive discrimination" can only be seen as a solution to racial discrimination. It is also an enormous problem in term of equality. "Positive Discrimination" means that a person who applies for a job is reduce to only one characteristic: his origin. Therefore, if there are two candidates for the same position, the one who belong to a minority would be preferred to the other one - the final choice would have been made based on the origins of the candidates. Once again, we are faced with a measure which seems to correct the existing inequalities but unfortunately create others. Conclusion Even if discrimination and inequality are listed under the same chapter in the Charter of the fundamental rights of the European Union, we shall not forget that discrimination is the direct consequence of some people's belief that we are not all equal. Therefore, if the European Union promotes laws which will punish discrimination and help minorities, it unfortunately does not change people's opinions and beliefs. In consequence, we must consider the European Union laws against discrimination to be necessary tools leading the way to that change. Nevertheless, we shall not forget that all these laws are considered as a temporary - as programs like "Positive Discrimination. Would this temporary measure help building an equal European Union We believe that the campaigns launched are an important step towards a better understanding of the issues by the key players. If we look at the basics of justice, laws are not principally made to punish but to discourage. Hopefully, as long as discrimination is considered, they will not have the same purpose. They will be the first stones of a healthier way of seeing our neighbors. And as far as the European Union is concerned, 25 members and numerous others to come, the process of understanding "the other" will have to come rapidly. Bibliography Amadieu, Jean-Francois "Positive Discrimination, but unfair" L'express. November 11, 2004. "Article 13" Available at: http://www.cre.gov.uk/legal/art13.html Crawford, Leslie. "Spain plans to ban sex discrimination at work" Financial Times. March 3, 2006. Available at: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11656856/ Council Directive 2000/78/EC Available at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/news/2002/jan/2000-78_en.pdf European Council in Copenhagen "Conclusions of the Presidency" Available at: http://ue.eu.int/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/ec/72921.pdf Graff, James. "Better Luck Next Year". Time Magazine - European Edition. December 10, 2005. Ripley, Amanda. "Equal Time" Special report - Time Europe. September 14, 2003. Available at: http://www.time.com/time/europe/gender/story.html "The Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union" Available at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/unit/charte/index_en.html see Chapter III Equality article 20-21 "Treaty of Amsterdam" Available at: http://www.eurotreaties.com/amsterdamtext.html "Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe" Available at: http://europa.eu.int/constitution/index_en.htm Read More