Le istituzioni locali e il mondo associativo per la costruzione di una rete in materia di cooperazione, cultura di pace, integrazione multietnica, promozione dei diritti umani e della solidarietà fra i popoli.
ENGLISH PAGE: EU commitment against every form of discrimination takes a step forward
The European Parliament has expressed a favourable opinion on the proposal for a Directive making effective the principle of equal treatment within Member States even in fields other than employment where it has found acceptance so far. The proposal provides for the establishment of a general framework for combating every form of discrimination on grounds of religion and personal belief, disability, age and sexual orientation. It concerns all persons involved in both the public and private sectors in the field of health care, social benefits, education, and access to goods and services provided for to the public. Further, the European Parliament calls for more precise rules on the obligations of banks and insurance companies, and for strengthening the rights of disabled people.
Exceptions- It should be note that the Directive does not concern the difference of treatment based on nationality, and is without prejudice to the provisions and conditions for entry and residence of third country nationals and stateless persons in the territory of Member States. Further, the Directive does not apply to national rules guaranteeing the secular nature of the state, defining activities and organization of national education systems and regulating advertising and media.
With a view to ensuring full and effective equality, Member States may also maintain or adopt specific measures to avoid or compensate for disadvantages linked to religion and personal belief, disability, age and sexual orientation. EU national governments are asked to take the necessary steps to ensure that the damage suffered as a result of discrimination is actually indemnified or compensated.
Integration-In addition, the European Parliament has taken the initiative to address the problem of integration of immigrants in schools. A greater number of school dropouts, a lower rate of access to higher education and a lower profit are recorded with regard to immigrants compared to their EU citizens comrades. A special matter of concern is represented by the increase in number of schools “ghetto”, as more and more families decide to transfer their children from those schools counting a high concentration of immigrants, what which certainly does not facilitate social integration.
Multicultural context- According to the European Parliament, particular attention should be given to the importance of learning the language of the host country since pre-school age, but it is also necessary to learn the language of the country of origin through respective parents, who must be fully involved in raising children. Given the importance of training teachers in a multicultural context, a key issue is creating some programmes of exchange and mobility for immigrant teachers aiming at facilitating their integration in schools. In addition, specific counselling services and education programmes on diversity and exchange may be used as means to limit the more and more frequent cases of racism, xenophobia and bullying.
Francesco Argese
