“In delay there lies no plenty”: overcoming the agebased obstacles, omissions and inconsistencies in the 2008 Proposed Council Directive on Equal Treatment

Resumo

The focus of this article is on the Proposed Council Directive on Equal Treatment which has been in the pipeline since 2008 but has been plagued by concerns over subsidiarity and legal certainty. The delay in implementing this proposal is having a detrimental impact on the protection of non-discrimination in the EU. The article is concerned primarily with the age ground and the particular obstacles, omissions and inconsistencies in the proposal which may hamper its eventual implementation. Analysis is made of obstacles in the context of financial services (including insurance and banking), omissions with respect to multiple and intersectional discrimination, exclusions and artificial intelligence and inconsistencies such as justifying only preferential differences in treatment on grounds of age, a departure from other anti-discrimination law within the EU. Identifying solutions to these impasses, this article hopes to play a small role in overcoming these challenges and carving a clear path for the implementation of the proposed Directive.