Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-02-Speech-2-045"
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"en.20080902.4.2-045"2
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"Mr President, President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, as a member and also Chairman of the Civil Liberties Committee, I shall confine myself to the proposal for an anti-discrimination directive.
First of all we congratulate you, Commissioner, on finally getting the Commission to adopt a proposal for a directive which seeks to counter discrimination based on religion, belief, disability, age and sexual orientation. Until recently we were afraid – as you know, we were anxious and we made our anxiety known – that you might limit yourselves to a mini-directive dealing only with discrimination based on age and disability.
You will not be surprised to learn that I find it unfortunate, on a matter as fundamental as this, that the European Parliament is merely to be 'consulted', but my distinct impression is that the Presidency is amenable to any proposals or suggestions which the European Parliament might make. So we shall get to work straight away, Commissioner, and I myself can see three aspects of the text which we shall try to improve.
Firstly we need to be more precise on a number of concepts or the demarcation between some of them. I am thinking of the area of 'objectively justified' differences in treatment. I have no quarrel with these, obviously, but these objectively justified differences in treatment must not be allowed to metamorphose directly or indirectly into discrimination. That can happen very quickly.
Secondly, the directive must not be stripped of its substance by the overhasty inclusion of notions like public safety or public order, as I think is currently happening in one big country in the south of the European Union, which shall remain nameless.
Thirdly, we must try harder on the question of sanctions. When you write in Article 14 'Member States shall lay down the rules on sanctions applicable to breaches of the national provisions adopted pursuant to this Directive', Commissioner, that does not get us very far.
In short, I trust that this directive, the repository of so much expectation, does not turn out in reality to be a big mini-directive, big on principles but very small on details."@en1
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