Dear Equinet Members,

Equinet is currently in contact with the European Commission, the European Parliament and various European networks of NGOs concerning the so-called ‘horizontal directive’ (the Directive proposed by the Commission in 2008 and currently in front of the Council, that would ensure equal treatment in areas outside employment on the grounds of age, disability, religion and belief and sexual orientation). As you might have heard or seen in recent Equinet communications and other news, there seem to be some positive and encouraging developments regarding the directive proposal.

In connection with this, for various upcoming meetings, we would like to ask you to provide us with material of the following kind that support the case for the adoption of the directive:

• Cases on the grounds and in the areas of the horizontal directive that can be used to show the importance of introducing EU legislation in the field (e.g. touching examples/stories that show why the Directive is absolutely indispensable and how it can change people’s lives). Examples can include cases that you’ve dealt with but also complaints that you received but could not deal with due to the lack of legislation covering the area in your country.
• Research on the economic benefits of equal treatment legislation in order to counter the argument of disproportionate costs.

Due to the quick developments on this issue, we would be grateful if you could send Ilaria Volpe (ilaria.volpe@equineteurope.org) and Tamas Kadar (tamas.kadar@equineteurope.org) any examples at your earliest convenience (they do not at all have to be lengthy case descriptions, just one paragraph setting out the key problem), possibly before this Wednesday 11th March 2015. We apologise for the short notice, the reason for which is that one of the first meetings where we could use such material takes place already on Thursday 12th March 2015.