Equality Bodies in the EU: Origins, Challenges and Future Prospects

In the last 20 years Equality Bodies (EBs) have quickly spread throughout Europe. EU law’s influence on this expansion has been particularly significant in terms of their geographic presence: at least one EB exists in each Member State as well as in EFTA countries and most candidate countries. EU law has also prompted broader mandates in many national EBs. However, EU law’s stimulus has not always resulted in the setting up of effective EBs. This chapter analyses the three key challenges that EU law has had to tackle since the duty to set up EBs was introduced at EU level through the Racial Equality Directive (RED, 2000/43/EC). The challenge of introducing this duty itself in EU law and the subsequent geographical expansion of EBs (‘spreading challenge’) was successfully overcome thanks to various driving forces, including the lobby efforts of the Starting Line Group and a series of legal transplants originating in the US. Yet, shortly after the adoption of the RED and the Employment Equality Directive (EED, 2000/78/EC), it became apparent that the incoherent EU requirements mandating the setting up of EBs for only some discrimination grounds (‘hierarchy challenge’) could be problematic in practice. This challenge has been progressively dealt with but is still not fully resolved. Currently, however, the most pressing challenge might be the limited effectiveness of some national EBs (‘effectiveness challenge’), partly enabled by the vague EU requirements regarding the configuration and functions of EBs. The 2018 Commission Recommendation on Standards for Equality Bodies is a welcome development that seeks to address this challenge, but given its soft-law nature, it is unclear if it will make a difference in practice.