The procedural and institutional dimension of EU anti-discrimination law

Abstract

This chapter does not deal with substantive norms of EU equality law, but with the way in which EU law has built a procedural and institutional framework that Member States should put in place in order to facilitate the effective application of the substantive anti-discrimination rules. This dimension was almost absent from the first phase of EU anti-discrimination law, which focused on the grounds of sex and nationality, and its main features were established by two directives adopted in 2000 and later developed in other instruments as well. The emphasis is, on the one hand, on a series of requirements which aim at facilitating the effective access to justice of victims of discrimination and, on the other hand, on the creation of non-judicial equality bodies designed to promote a culture of equality. This framework was most recently, in 2014, extended with some modifications to non-discrimination on grounds of nationality and the free movement of workers within the European Union.