International Advocacy Submissions: EU Green/White Papers

03 September 2004

Position of the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) on the Establishment of a Fundamental Rights Agency of and for the European Union 17 December 2004

Commenting on Commission document "Com(2004) 693 final of 25 October 2005, "Communication from the Commission, The Fundamental Rights Agency, Public Consultation Document"

 

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  Written Comments of the European Roma Rights Center to European Commission "Green Paper: Equality and Non-Discrimination in an Enlarged European Union"
  
  In late Spring 2004, the European Commission (EC) opened for comment a "Green Paper" on "Equality and Non-Discrimination in an Enlarged European Union". The EC Green Paper is available at:
  
  - EC Green Paper . The ERRC joined debate on the Green Paper with a contribution on the problem of the "nationality exclusion" included in 3 key European Union Directives, and in particular in Directive 2000/43/EC "implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin" (the "Race Directive"), Europe's premiere document banning racial discrimination. The "nationality exclusion" in the Race Directive sets differential treatment based on nationality for the time being outside the scope of the European Union definition of racial discrimination, by including texts such as "This Directive does not cover difference of treatment based on nationality and is without prejudice to provisions and conditions relating to the entry into and residence of third-country nationals and stateless persons on the territory of Member States, and to any treatment which arises from the legal status of the third-country nationals and stateless persons concerned." With reference to international law, the ERRC argues that the "nationality exclusion" in the Race Directive harms the anti-discrimination acquis by arbitrarily cleaving "nationality" from the definition of racial discrimination. The full text of the ERRC's written comments to the European Commission on this issue are available at: .
  
  In addition, the ERRC joined a statement by the recently-established "Coalition for Environmental Justice", a loose network of NGOs focussing on problems of the disparate impact of environmental harms on minorities and minority communities in Central and Eastern Europe. The statement by the Coalition for Environmental Justice focussed on the need to establish explicit links between EU environmental law on the one hand and EU anti-discrimination law on the other. The full text of the statement by the Coalition for Environmental Justice is available at: .