Ethnic discrimination, discrimination by association and the Roma community: CHEZ

Publishers Abstract:
The Race Equality Directive (RED) has now been in force for 15 years, but the European Court of Justice has only received four preliminary reference requests from national courts. This number is strikingly low, especially compared to the numerous cases which have reached the court regarding other discrimination grounds protected under Framework Employment Directive (FED), passed only few months after the RED.

Whilst in the first of these cases, Firma Feryn, the ECJ had to consider how the concept of 'direct discrimination' ought to be interpreted, in the following two cases it was not required to rule on the RED substantive provisions: in Meister the preliminary reference only concerned the procedural provisions, and in Belov a preliminary reference concerning Roma discrimination was rejected on admissibility grounds.

This fourth preliminary reference on the RED, Chez, is thus the second time the ECJ has ruled on the interpretation of the substantive provisions of the RED.

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