EQUALITY AND THE LISBON TREATY by Niall Crowley, Village Magazine September '09
The Lisbon Treaty contains valuable provisions on equality. The Treaty sustains the role of the European Union as a stimulus for greater equality within its Member States. It is clear that this commitment to equality is easier to sustain at this international level than it is at the level of individual Member States such as Ireland.
It was the European Union that required legislation on equality and discrimination in Ireland. The Anti-Discrimination (Pay) Act 1974 and the Employment Equality Act 1977 were only enacted on the insistence of the European Commission. Since then Ireland has played more of a leading role with the enactment of the Employment Equality Act 1998 and the Equal Status Act 2000. This legislation placed Ireland to the forefront in the European Union. However the European Union has continued to be a positive influence for better and more ambitious equality policy in Ireland.
Further European Union Equal Treatment Directives in 2000, 2002, and 2004 have been a source of ongoing improvements in Irish equality legislation. The European Commission has usefully created a focus on equality issues that Member States have been too cautious to lead on. European Commission initiatives, for example, have encouraged a better and more informed focus on equality and diversity in the media, and have promoted positive action targeting groups experiencing inequality as a means of addressing legacies of discrimination. The European Commission has also established a Governmental Expert Group on equality policy and practice, with representation from all Member States, to support good practice in the policy field of equality.
The Lisbon Treaty underpins this work by establishing equality as a value of the European Union. A new Article states ‘The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights including the rights of persons belonging to minorities’. This sets an important standard for the European Union and its Member States – a standard to which they should be held to account.
The Lisbon Treaty sets out objectives for the European Union that include a focus on equality. A new Article establishes that the European Union ‘shall combat social exclusion and discrimination, and shall promote social justice and protection, equality between women and men, solidarity between generations and protection of the rights of the child’. This objective should be used to further develop the policy focus on equality and social inclusion in the European Union.
This value and objective are given practical expression in two other new Articles in the Lisbon Treaty that should place equality, non-discrimination and social inclusion at the heart of future European Union policy making. One Article requires that ‘in defining and implementing its policies and activities the Union shall take into account requirements linked to the promotion of a high level of employment, the guarantee of adequate social protection, the fight against social exclusion and a high level of education, training and protection of human health’. Another Article requires that ‘in defining and implementing its policies and activities, the Union shall aim to combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation’.
These Articles provide the basis for new initiative to mainstream equality and social inclusion in all policy making by the European Institutions. Mainstreaming equality and social inclusion is a formal process of impact assessment on all new policies. It tests the capacity of any policy to contribute to equality and inclusion and, if necessary, redesigns the policy where this contribution is lacking or not present. Mainstreaming equality and inclusion is under-developed at European Union level. It is not practiced at Member State level. It has a key contribution to make in achieving a coherent and sustained pursuit of equality and inclusion across the European Union.
This focus on mainstreaming is further strengthened by another new Treaty Article in the section on the democratic principles. This requires the institutions of the European Union to ‘maintain an open, transparent and regular dialogue with representative associations and civil society’. This Article does reflect current practice of both the European Commission and Parliament. However, it usefully establishes a right for those organizations representing people experiencing inequality to a voice at the European policy table.
The Lisbon Treaty also furthers the promotion of equality in its recognition of the rights, freedoms and principles set out in the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Treaty makes the Charter binding on the European Institutions and on the Member States when they are implementing European Union law.
The Charter includes a chapter on equality. This does not expand the competency of the European Union or give it any new powers or tasks. However, it will hopefully serve to influence future directions for the equality agenda at European level.
In particular, the Charter has a much broader scope than current European Union equality legislation. It states that ‘Any discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation shall be prohibited’. This open scope to the grounds on which discrimination is prohibited allows a comprehensive approach to equality. This should be the standard against which we assess the quality of our approach to equality in Ireland and across the European Union.
By Niall Crowley
Niall Crowley is an independent equality consultant and is author of ‘An Ambition for Equality’ published by Irish Academic Press.