The Method of Supervising Implementation of Equality and Anti-discrimination Law by the European Commission in the years 2002–15

Abstract

The main research problem of the article consists in a question on the method of supervising implementation of equality and anti-discrimination law by the European Commission in the years 2002–2015. The study showed that the Commission, overseeing implementation of the equality and anti-discrimination law of the EU, used to come out of the role of “the guardian of the treaties” and was discussing problems of infringements in dialogue with Member States. The survey also revealed preferences of the Commission, i.e. greater interest in the two directives (2000/43/EC and 2000/78/EC), and less likely to look at the infringement of the principle of equality and non-discrimination from an economic perspective but more in terms of violation of individual rights. Moreover the study revealed that elements of governance could be found in Commission’s activity, namely cooperation with external partners (network of experts) who had resources (information) that the Commission needed for the inspection. Analysis was based onthe quantitative data. The theory of Europeanization has been applied to the analysis.