Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-10-04-Speech-3-180"
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"en.20001004.8.3-180"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, if tomorrow, the entire House adopts the viewpoints held by the competent committees with regard to the directive, I am convinced that the new directive on equal treatment in the workplace will be an excellent directive, which will have an enormous impact on the elderly, the disabled, homosexuals and lesbians in their battle against discrimination in the workplace. My group therefore lends its unqualified support to the report and we would particularly like to thank the co-rapporteurs, Mr Thomas Mann and Mrs Joke Swiebel for their sterling work and also congratulate them on the excellent cooperation within the respective committees.
I would, in fact, like to seize the opportunity also to congratulate Mr Cashman, because although directives are important, action programmes are, of course, essential too in terms of the support they lend to directives. The speed with which the institutions have deployed the new Amsterdam powers, Commissioner, show that the European Union is still in the vanguard of equal opportunities, and I would like to extend my express thanks to the European Commission for this. Moreover, I hope that the French Presidency will be indulged and that this directive and the action programme will now be approved.
I would like to air a few concerns regarding this directive which are of particular importance for my group. Parliament rightly chose to play the trump cards which we already have in the form of existing directives on equal treatment, those on gender and those on race and ethnic origin, and I am particularly pleased with the sound descriptions of indirect discrimination, positive action and the principle of shared burden of proof. We were also right to decide against including sex discrimination in this directive because there is already a separate European directive on sex discrimination, which will, in fact, be revised further to the Commission proposals and which is founded on a much stronger legal basis, about which Parliament, in fact, may decide in codecision. What is important, however, is that the European Parliament should advocate that double discrimination, which often victimises older women and disabled women, should be tackled here.
Thirdly, my group applauds the decision to delete the non-exhaustive list of so-called justifications of differences of treatment on the grounds of age. This would only open the floodgates to so-called discriminations already warranted in advance. We are also delighted with the provision in the directive which stipulates that equal treatment for the disabled also means that companies are expected to make the necessary adjustments within the workplace.
Finally, Commissioner, I would like to say how excellent this work is. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for the cooperation, but our task is not finished. Let us hope – and I am relying on you, Commissioner – that the European Commission will now come forward with proposals, pursuant to Article 13, to fight discrimination on grounds other than those to be found in the workplace."@en1
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