REPORT on the protection of minorities and anti-discrimination policies in an enlarged Europe

10.5.2005 - (2005/2008(INI))

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
Rapporteur: Claude Moraes

OPINION of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

on the protection of minorities and anti-discrimination policies in an enlarged Europe
(2005/2008(INI))

Draftsperson: Maria Matsouka

SUGGESTIONS

The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs calls on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions in its motion for a resolution:

1. Considers that the comprehensive legislative work of the Union’s institutions is not sufficient in itself to tackle the root of the problem of inequality and to combat the discrimination faced by European citizens and foreign workers; believes that unemployment, poverty and the ageing of Europe’s population may lead to a particular kind of social conflict, with cultural characteristics, between national and foreign workers and immigrants and young and elderly workers; Considers that that European legislation in favour of the principle of equality and against discrimination depends to a great extent on the commitment of national authorities to take suitable measures and evaluate the results; considers that in order to promote equality and non-discrimination in Europe it is also necessary to ensure that the public is informed as completely as possible of the active support and participation of civil society and the provision of additional support through the taking of non-legislative measures;

2. Points out that, although progress has been made on women’s employment and despite their high level of education, women continue to be paid less than men for the same work and to be regarded with suspicion by employers owing to pregnancy and maternity; points also to the cases of sexual harassment where women find it difficult to make a complaint for fear of being publicly humiliated or dismissed;

3. Notes the high rates of unemployment of elderly and disabled workers owing to the greater difficulty they experience in gaining access to training programmes and new job opportunities;

4. Draws attention to the need to fully implement the Framework Employment Directive (Council Directive 2000/78/EC), which outlaws discrimination in the workplace on grounds of disability, age, religion and sexual orientation;

5. Notes that, in many instances, European Union law and directives are implemented to only a limited extent, which is mainly due to ignorance of social structures, mistrust and doubt on the part of citizens; Considers that Member States should encourage, on the basis of legislation, collective agreements or practice, public and private sector employers to promote programmatically and systematically, the principle of equality and non‑discrimination at the workplace and in working conditions, in access to employment, career development, pay and vocational training;

6. Considers that, in the context of globalisation, where economic activity is not restricted geographically and movements of capital and labour have assumed unprecedented proportions, equality and the elimination of discrimination cannot be tackled from a ‘European standpoint’; points out that the glut of products on world markets is often the result of the overexploitation of labour (which leads to illegal immigration) and that the more developed regions (USA, EU) ‘import’ human scientific resources from the less developed South, making it impossible to overcome ‘underdevelopment’;

7. Draws attention to the subject of national minorities, with particular regard to the 7‑9 million Roma living in the European Union who are subject to multiple discrimination;

8.  Notes, finally, that a particular situation characterised by inequality and discrimination has arisen as a result of the burgeoning unemployment and poverty observed in recent years at the heart of European societies.

PROCEDURE

Title	Protection of minorities and anti-discrimination policies in an enlarged Europe
Procedure number	2005/2008(INI)
Committee responsible	LIBE
Committee asked for its opinion   Date announced in plenary	EMPL 24.2.2005
Enhanced cooperation	-
Draftsperson   Date appointed	Maria Matsouka 11.10.2004
Discussed in committee	15.3.2005	19.4.2005
Date suggestions adopted	20.4.2005
Result of final vote	for: against: abstentions:		23 0 0
Members present for the final vote	Jan Andersson, Emine Bozkurt, Ole Christensen, Jean Louis Cottigny, Ilda Figueiredo, Joel Hasse Ferreira, Stephen Hughes, Sepp Kusstatscher, Jean Lambert, Raymond Langendries, Bernard Lehideux, Thomas Mann, Maria Matsouka, Ria Oomen-Ruijten, Csaba Őry, Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou, Jacek Protasiewicz, José Albino Silva Peneda, Anne Van Lancker.
Substitutes present for the final vote	Udo Bullmann, Elisabeth Schroedter, Marc Tarabella, Patrizia Toia.
Substitutes under Rule 178(2) present for the final vote	-

OPINION of the Committee on Culture and Education (21.4.2005)

for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

on Protection of minorities and anti-discrimination policies in an enlarged Europe
(2005/2008(INI))

Draftsman: Miguel Portas

SUGGESTIONS

The Committee on Culture and Education calls on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions in its motion for a resolution:

Charter of Fundamental Rights, Article 14 (Education)

1.   Urges Member States to do their utmost to ensure the effective integration in education systems of the children of refugees, asylum-seekers and immigrants;

Charter of Fundamental Rights, Article 22 (Respect for cultural, religious and linguistic diversity)

2.   Calls on France to sign the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities; urges Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg and the Netherlands to ratify the Convention;

3.   Calls on Belgium, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania and Portugal to sign the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages; urges the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta and Poland to ratify it;

4.  Urges Member States to continue their efforts to improve the situation of the Roma/ Sinti minorities by acting against discrimination in employment and housing and by taking account of the particular educational requirements of Roma/Sinti children.

PROCEDURE

Title	Protection of minorities and anti-discrimination policies in an enlarged Europe
Procedure number	2005/2008(INI)
Committee responsible	LIBE
Committee asked for its opinion   Date announced in plenary	CULT 24.2.2005
Enhanced cooperation	No
Drafts(wo)man   Date appointed	Miguel Portas 1.2.2005
Discussed in committee	14.3.2005	21.4.2005
Date suggestions adopted	21.4.2005
Result of final vote	for: against: abstentions:		31 0 1
Members present for the final vote	María Badía i Cutchet, Christopher Beazley, Giovanni Berlinguer, Guy Bono, Marie-Hélène Descamps, Jolanta Dičkutė, Věra Flasarová, Milan Gaľa, Claire Gibault, Vasco Graça Moura, Lissy Gröner, Luis Francisco Herrero-Tejedor, Ruth Hieronymi, Manolis Mavrommatis, Marianne Mikko, Zdzisław Zbigniew Podkański, Miguel Portas, Christa Prets, Karin Resetarits, Nikolaos Sifunakis, Helga Trüpel, Henri Weber, Thomas Wise, Tomáš Zatloukal
Substitutes present for the final vote	Ivo Belet, Michael Cramer, András Gyürk, Małgorzata Handzlik, Gyula Hegyi, Ignasi Guardans Cambó, Nina Škottová, Witold Tomczak
Substitutes under Rule 178(2) present for the final vote

OPINION of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (20.4.2005)

for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

on the protection of minorities and anti- discrimination policies in an enlarged Europe
(2005/2008(INI))

Draftswoman: Edit Bauer

SUGGESTIONS

The Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality calls on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions in its motion for a resolution:

- having regard to Article I-14 of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, which sets out the areas of shared competence, one of which is the area of freedom, security and justice,

- having regard to Directive 2000/43/EC implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin, Directive 2000/78/EC establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation and Equal Treatment Amendment Directive 2002/73/EC,

A.  whereas there is a difference between protection of minorities and anti-discrimination policy,

As regards the protection of national minorities:

1.   Considers it necessary to draw a clear distinction between (national) minorities, immigrants and asylum seekers;

2    Emphasises the fact that minority rights are an integral part of basic human rights;

3.   Calls on the Commission to establish a policy standard for the protection of national minorities;

4.  Calls on the Member States and the Commission to give particular importance to women members of national or religious minorities as they are frequently victims of discrimination not only by the majority of the population but also by members of their own minority; Member States should take action and measures for the protection of those women's rights; such measures could include providing, on a continuous basis, information to women members of minorities about the rights guaranteed in Community and national law for everyone and especially women;

As regards strengthening anti-discrimination policy:

5.  Points to the fact that women continue to suffer discrimination in various areas of everyday life, in spite of the legislation in force on combating discrimination;

6.   Considers that attention should also be paid to the particular problems faced by women immigrants trying to gain access to the labour market and consequently to integrate themselves into the host country;

7.   Draws attention to the multiple forms of discrimination suffered by women belonging to national minorities (especially to the Roma/Sinti minority) or migrants, on account of which a coherent policy approach is required;

8.   Calls on the EU and the Member States to develop a methodology for examining the interaction of ethnicity and gender and identifying the multiple forms of discrimination suffered by women and girls and their effect on them, so that this methodology may serve as the basis on which legal instruments, policies and programmes are designed and implemented;

9.   Underlines the importance of focusing on the aspect of gender in relation to all groups that suffer from discrimination, since the women in these groups often face special problems;

10. Calls for data on direct and indirect discrimination to be collected (for example the percentage of persons/women belonging to minorities among those living at risk of poverty, those in employment and the unemployed, and the percentage in education, etc.) so as to ensure that there is proper feedback on the effectiveness of Member State anti-discrimination and minority-protection policies;

11. Calls on Member States to integrate a gender dimension into their Action Plan for the elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and in particular to develop gender-sensitive and gender-specific guidelines and indicators and use sex-disaggregated data at all levels;

12. Calls on Member States to ensure that staff providing public services and counselling are aware of the particular issues facing ethnic minority and migrant women and that this staff receives anti-racism training which includes a gender-sensitive perspective;

13. Calls on Member States to introduce legal protection against discrimination, including positive measures and gender dimension on grounds covered by Article 13 of the EC Treaty.

PROCEDURE

Title	Protection of minorities and anti-discrimination policies in an enlarged Europe
Procedure number	2005/2008(INI)
Committee responsible	LIBE
Committee asked for its opinion   Date announced in plenary	FEMM 24/2/2005
Enhanced cooperation	No
Draftsperson   Date appointed	Edit Bauer 17.3.2005
Discussed in committee	20.4.2005
Date suggestions adopted	20.4.2005
Result of final vote	for: against: abstentions:		18 0 0
Members present for the final vote	Emine Bozkurt, Věra Flasarová, Zita Gurmai, María Esther Herranz García, Anneli Jäätteenmäki, Lívia Járóka, Piia-Noora Kauppi, Urszula Krupa, Pia Elda Locatelli, Angelika Niebler, Doris Pack, Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou, Teresa Riera Madurell, Amalia Sartori, Lydia Schenardi, Eva-Britt Svensson, Anna Záborská
Substitutes present for the final vote	Anna Hedh, Elisabeth Jeggle
Substitutes under Rule 178(2) present for the final vote

PROCÉDURE

Titre

The protection of minorities and anti-discrimination policies in an enlarged Europe

Numéro de procédure

2005/2008(INI)

Base réglementaire

art. 45

Commission compétente au fond   Date de l'annonce en séance de l'autorisation

LIBE 24.2.2005

Commission(s) saisie(s) pour avis   Date de l'annonce en séance

EMPL 24.2.2005

CULT 24.2.2005

FEMM 24.2.2005

Avis non émis   Date de la décision

Coopération renforcée   Date de l'annonce en séance

Proposition(s) de résolution incluse(s) dans le rapport

Rapporteur(s)   Date de la nomination

Claude Moraes 25.11.2004

Rapporteur(s) remplacé(s)

Examen en commission

16.3.2005

26.4.2005

Date de l'adoption

26.4.2005

Résultat du vote final

pour: contre: abstentions:

33 14 1

Membres présents au moment du vote final

Alexander Nuno Alvaro, Edit Bauer, Mario Borghezio, Mihael Brejc, Maria Carlshamre, Michael Cashman, Giusto Catania, Charlotte Cederschiöld, Fausto Correia, Rosa Díez González, Antoine Duquesne, Kinga Gál, Patrick Gaubert, Elly de Groen-Kouwenhoven, Lívia Járóka, Timothy Kirkhope, Ewa Klamt, Magda Kósáné Kovács, Wolfgang Kreissl-Dörfler, Barbara Kudrycka, Romano Maria La Russa, Henrik Lax, Edith Mastenbroek, Claude Moraes, Hartmut Nassauer, Lapo Pistelli, Martine Roure, Michele Santoro, Inger Segelström, Frank Vanhecke, Ioannis Varvitsiotis, Tatjana Ždanoka

Suppléants présents au moment du vote final

Panayiotis Demetriou, Koenraad Dillen, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, Sophia in 't Veld, Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann, Antonio Masip Hidalgo, Jean Lambert, Vincent Peillon, Herbert Reul, Marie-Line Reynaud, Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, Rainer Wieland

Suppléants (art. 178, par. 2) présents au moment du vote final

María del Pilar Ayuso González, Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis, Véronique Mathieu, Manolis Mavrommatis

Date du dépôt – A6

10.5.2005

A6‑0140/2005