Developing Anti-Discrimination Law in Europe : The 28 EU Member States, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Turkey compared

Over 10 years ago a major and unprecedented evolution occurred in the European Union with the adoption in 2000 of two pieces of EU legislation in the field of anti-discrimination: the Racial Equality Directive (2000/43/EC) and the Employment Equality Directive (2000/78/EC). The transposition and implementation of these legal provisions into the national legal systems of the 28 Member States is described in a series of annually updated country reports produced by the European Network of Legal Experts in the Non-discrimination Field. In addition, the Network also includes candidate countries (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland and Turkey) and, since 2012, EEA countries (Liechtenstein and Norway). The Network annually reports on their national legislation compared with the anti-discrimination standards set by the EU. This Network was established and is managed by the Human European Consultancy and the Migration Policy Group. The national reports are written by independent national experts in each country covered by the Network. The information is provided in response to questions set out in a template format which closely follows the provisions of the two Directives, although all countries included in the Network do not have the same compliance obligations. The 33 reports cover national law, the establishment of enforcement mechanisms, jurisprudence and the adoption of other measures. They contain information current as of 1 January 2014. As such, they are a valuable source of information on national anti-discrimination law and can be found on the Network’s website at: www.non-discrimination.net. This Comparative Analysis, drafted by Isabelle Chopin and Catharina Germaine (Migration Policy Group), compares and analyses the information set out in the 2013 country reports in a format mirroring that of the country reports themselves and draws some conclusions from the information contained in them.