Under pressure of the black-red Federal Government and the insurance lobby the EU-wide harmonization of standards for the protection against discrimination were delayed for a long time outside the employment life – regarding personal characteristics such as age, disability, religion and belief as well as sexual orientation.
Only because of massive pressure from us Greens the EU Commission finally in 2008 presented its draft for a framework directive for the missing areas of protection against discrimination. This requires that people with the mentioned characteristics must be granted protection against discrimination in their effective access to services and goods including housing, education, social benefits, social protection as well as social security and health services.
In discrimination cases the burden of proof is moved in order to help the victims. Associations or organizations can support these or take over the plaints. However, the proposal of the Commissions for disabled people remains below the protection level that the UN-Convention for people with disabilities demands from all signatory states and the EU. Therefore, we Greens remain active to rework the still existing gaps in education, the family law or the access possibilities for disabled people.
(from: the Green theme in European politics, European Green Group in the European Parliament, January 2009)
