Anti-Discrimination Measures and the EU

Although the Treaty of Rome, in Article 6 indirectly refers to equality and non-discrimination, there was no legal basis for the application of such basic individual rights. As the Union progressively matured through its Treaties, Regulations, Declarations and Conventions, more and more of these egalitarian rights have been introduced to build the concepts of a United Union and the 'Euro-citizen'. The EC Treaties reflect social equality principles in a number of different ways that have been applied by the ECJ and have become imprinted in case law (25). Article 12 contains a general prohibition of 'any discrimination on the grounds of nationality' and the European Parliament is a co-legislator in this field by provisions of the Amsterdam Treaty. Article 13 in the Amsterdam Treaty empowers the council to take appropriate action to combat 'discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age or sexual orientation'. The Council has adopted two directives and two decisions based on this article (26). The Nice Treaty empowers the Council to support Member States in such matters (27).…