Etnikai származáson alapuló hátrányos megkülönböztetés az árukhoz és szolgáltatásokhoz való hozzáférés területén

Absztrakt

Combatting discrimination against the Roma is one of the biggest challenges that several, mainly Central and Eastern European, countries currently face. Whilst a great deal of this discrimination concerns areas which EU law has nothing to do with, some of its forms occur in situations which clearly fall within the scope of this law. Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits any discrimination based, among others, on race, colour, ethnic or social origin. This general non-discrimination provision of the Charta applies to all areas of EU law regardless of whether certain matters are also subject to more specific rules.

Nevertheless, by adopting the Council Directive 2000/43/EC implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin, the EU legislator overtly prohibited any discrimination on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin in relation, inter alia, to employment and occupation, social security, healthcare, education as well as access to and supply of goods and services.

The Court of Justice recently ruled in a Bulgarian case that the installation by an electricity distribution company of electricity meters at an inaccessible height in a district densely populated by Roma constituted discrimination on the grounds of ethnic origin within the meaning of the Directive when such meters were installed in other districts at a normal height. The Court also made it clear that even if there had been abuse of the meters in that district, such a practice was disproportionate to and could therefore not be justified by the dual objective consisting in ensuring the security of the electricity transmission network and the due recording of electricity consumption. This case was the first in which the Court disapproved of a discriminative practice followed by an undertaking in detriment to the Roma. Only time will decide whether the Court will regularly be asked in the future to deal with cases relating to the discrimination of the Roma as it has already been asked many times to rule in matters in connection with the equal treatment of women, homosexuals or Muslims living in Western Europe.