Transposition of the EU directives on gender equality and non-discrimination

To ensure full compliance with EU law, Member States are required to align their national legislation with all the requirements of the directives. Similarly, candidate countries are required when accessing the EU to comply with the acquis on gender equality and non-discrimination.

Research of the previous gender equality and non-discrimination networks shows that all Member States have now transposed the provisions of most of the directives in their national legislation. However, this does not always apply to recent directives. Furthermore, the directives are not necessarily implemented effectively throughout all Member States. If a Member State fails to correctly transpose the directives the European Commission can initiate infringement proceedings either in response to a complaint or on its own initiative. A number of infringement proceedings have been initiated since the entry into force of the gender equality and non-discrimination directives. These proceedings, whether they led to a finding of violation by the Court of Justice of the EU or whether they could be terminated at an earlier stage due to the reaction of the State concerned have pushed the Member States towards bringing their legislation into line with the directives.