EUROPE: EU Parliament favours ban on age discrimination by member states

. BRUSSELS, Belgium / AGE / April 2, 2009 Today the European Parliament voted with a significant majority (363 in favour, 226 against and 64 abstention) in favour of the report supporting the introduction of a new EU anti-discrimination directive to ban discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, religion/belief and sexual orientation in areas other than employment. Reporting this, AGE, the European Older People's Platform, observes that this is an important step towards putting an end to the discrimination faced by millions of citizens in the EU in access to some goods and services. At the same time, AGE stresses that there is still important work to be done by the Council of the European Union. "In order to provide effective legal protection against discrimination, it is essential to amend the proposed directive’s text to limit the number of remaining exceptions, in particular on its material scope and to improve provisions protecting older and disabled people against discrimination," adds AGE. Source: AGE Secretariat