The current EU legal framework provides comprehensive protection against discrimination on grounds of gender and racial or ethnic origin in key areas of life. However, it currently offers protection against discrimination on grounds of religion or belief, disability, age and sexual orientation only in the area of employment and occupation. By the end of 2018, after 10 years of negotiations, the Council of the EU had still not adopted the Equal Treatment Directive, which would extend this protection to the areas of education, social protection, and access to and supply of goods and services, including housing. This means that EU law protects an individual facing discrimination in, for example, the area of housing if the discrimination is on grounds of racial or ethnic discrimination, but not if it is on grounds of sexual orientation or other grounds. This results in an artificial hierarchy of grounds within the EU, with some of them more protected than others.
Article 21 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights prohibits discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation. Article 19 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union holds that the Council, acting unanimously, in accordance with a special legislative procedure and after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament, may take appropriate action to combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.
1. Any discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation shall be prohibited. 2. Within the scope of application of the Treaty establishing the European Community and of the Treaty on European Union, and without prejudice to the special provisions of those Treaties, any discrimination on grounds of nationality shall be prohibited.