Keynote speech Sandra Fredman PDF (318 kB)

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The comparative analyses provide a summary of the state of affairs of non-discrimination and gender equality law in the 28 EU Member States, Albania, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia and Turkey. The analyses give an overview of the key issues, include the latest and most important legal developments at the national level such as case law and legislative amendments, and illustrate and assess the evolution of non-discrimination and gender equality law.  

This second issue of the 2020 European Equality Law Review provides an overview of legal and policy developments in the field of gender equality and non-discrimination across Europe from 1 January to 30 June 2020.

It furthermore contains four in-depth analytical articles. The first article, by David Oppenheimer from the Berkley Centre on Comparative Equality and Anti-discrimination Law, discusses how the Covid-19 Pandemic has disproportionally affected disadvantaged people, particularly women of ethnic minorities and colour in the US. The second article, by Alexandra Timmer, Linda Senden, Birte Böök and Franka van Hoof of the gender equality coordination team of Utrecht University, looks at how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected gender equality in the EU from a EU law perspective. The third article, by Jakub Tomšej, the non-discrimination expert for Czechia, examines the sanction systems under the Racial Equality and Employment Equality Directives, comparing legislation and practice in Czechia, Poland and Slovakia. The last article, by diversity and inclusion consultant Yamam Al-Zubaidi, provides an analytical overview of the potential uses of ethnic data and its practical effects in discrimination cases, with a particular focus on Sweden and the United Kingdom but also drawing from experiences in Finland, France and Germany.

To receive hard copies of the European equality law review and be added to our mailing list to automatically receive future issues, please visit our order page. 

The European network of legal experts in gender equality and non-discrimination, established in December 2014, combines two previously existing networks: the European Network of Legal Experts in the Non-discrimination Field and the European Network of Legal Experts in the field of Gender Equality.

The gender equality network has a long history. It started in 1983, focussing on the implementation at national level of the series of directives that have been adopted since 1975 on equal treatment between women and men and on the cases on sex discrimination decided by the Court of Justice. With its experienced experts the network assisted the Commission in its task to monitor the correct implementation of the gender equality acquis communautaire. In 1983, only 6 Member States were participating in this network, in contrast to the 36 countries that are now included in the network.

The network of legal experts on non-discrimination was established in 2004 with the main aim to provide the Commission with independent advice on all the grounds of discrimination covered by Directive 2000/43/EC and Directive 2000/78/EC. The network was a follow-up to three separate networks, one of which dealt with racial or ethnic origin and religion or belief, one with disability and one with sexual orientation.

After a period of increasingly closer cooperation during the years 2012 - 2014 the gender equality and the non-discrimination networks merged into the current network covering all discrimination grounds in the EU Treaties.

The network ensures a regular overview of state of affairs regarding the transposition of EU equality and non-discrimination law on a country by country basis in the annual country reports and comparative analyses, whereas more recent reporting can be found in the legal developments section of the website and the key developments section of the bi-annual European Equality Law Review. Topical issues are addressed in article in the Equality Law Review and thematic reports that are published on the website and presented and discussed during the annual legal seminar.

The overall operation of the network is governed by Human European Consultancy, the School of Law of Utrecht University and the Migration Policy Group.

General coordination - Human European Consultancy

Coordination gender equality - Utrecht University

Coordination non-discrimination - Migration Policy Group

Executive committee of senior experts

Welcome!

In order to effectively promote equality and tackle discrimination in the European Union it is important to understand the effects of the EU's equal treatment and non-discrimination legislation.

The European Commission therefore set up the former network of legal experts in gender equality and the network on non-discrimination to support its work by providing independent information and advice on relevant developments in the Member States. The two networks were merged in December 2014 and are now jointly managed by Human European Consultancy, the Migration Policy Group (MPG) and Utrecht University (UU) on behalf of the European Commission.

A primary task of the European network of legal experts in gender equality and non-discrimination is to provide reliable, expert information to enable the Commission to fulfil their role as guardian of the treaties. The disclosure and gathering of information on gender equality and non-discrimination legislation, case law and developments at national level, that is often not easily accessible due to the specificities of national legal systems, language barriers and difficulties in finding relevant information, is therefore one of the key goals of the new network.

The dissemination of general information about the acquis (communautaire and national), the latest developments at the EU level and in the countries involved in the network, remains a vital issue both for the further implementation of gender equality and non-discrimination law and its further development. Only upon the basis of the disclosure of gender equality and non-discrimination problems persisting in the Member States and other countries involved in the network, will it be possible to develop sound policies and legal rules for remedying these.

On this website the network publishes information on developments in gender equality and non-discrimination law at the Member State and European level. More information can be found via our legal developments page and the individual country pages.