European Anti-discrimination Legal Network

Summary

European Network of Independent Legal Experts in the Non-discrimination Field

Description

The Migration Policy Group and Human European Consultancy have established and manage a Network of independent legal experts in the non-discrimination field that provides independent information and advice on the implementation of the Article 13 anti-discrimination Directives in all 27 Member States. In addition to the EU Member States, the candidate countries Turkey, Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia have been part of the Network since December 2009.

Cooperation with governmental and non-governmental stakeholders may facilitate the expeditious and timely gathering of information on developments in law and policies. It facilitates dialogue on how these developments are to be interpreted (in conformity with Community law or not) and how certain legal problems can be best addressed.

The quality of the information is crucially important for the proper implementation of the EC directives.

The network, 30 country experts for each EU Member State, Turkey, Croatia and FYROM, is run by a management team led by the Migration Policy Group and Human European Consultancy. It consists of a scientific Board of Directors and five ground coordinators each covering one discrimination ground, and is funded by the European Commission.

What we do

The task of the Network is to produce information, advice and reports.

The information includes:

• The transposition of the Directives
• Their practical implementation
• National initiatives in the field on anti-discrimination legislation and related policy developments
• The impact of national court rulings that have the effect of establishing jurisprudence on the level of protection provided by national law against discrimination 
• The potential conformity of national developments with the requirements of Community law
• The impact of judgments of the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights on national law
  

The Network produces:

• Comprehensive reports
  
• Thematic reports
  
• Regular flash report
  
• Bi-annual bulletins of the European Anti-Discrimination Law Review
  
• Chapter for the Commission's Annual Equality Report
  
• One-day annual seminar

Management team:

Project Director: Piet Leunis, Human European Consultancy

Deputy Project Director, Content Manager and Executive Editor: Isabelle Chopin, Migration Policy Group

Support Manager: Human European Consultancy

Managing Editor: Thien Uyen Do, Migration Policy Group

Senior Researchers: 

Christopher McCrudden, Oxford University
Jan Niessen, Migration Policy Group
Olivier De Schutter, University of Louvain
Christa Tobler, Universities of Leiden and Base

Ground Coordinators:

Mark Bell, University of Leicester (sexual orientation)
Lilla Farkas, Migration Policy Group (race and ethnic origin)
Mark Freedland, Oxford University (age)
Isabelle Rorive, Free University Brussels (religion and belief)
Lisa Waddington, Maastricht University  (disability)

The country experts:

Austria: Dieter Schindlauer
Belgium: Emmanuelle Bribosia
Bulgaria: Margarita Ilieva
Croatia: Jagoda Novak
Cyprus: Corina Demetriou
Czech Republic: Pavla Boucková
Denmark: Christoffer Badse
Estonia: Vadim Poleshchuk
Finland: Juhani Kortteinen
France: Sophie Latraverse
FYROM: Mirjina Najcevska
Germany: Matthias Mahlmann
Greece: Athanassios Theodoridis
Hungary: András Kádár
Ireland: Orlagh O'Farrell
Italy: Alessandro Simoni
Latvia: Gita Feldhune
Lithuania: Gediminas Andriukaitis
Luxembourg: François Moyse
Malta: Tonio Ellul
Netherlands: Rikki Holtmaat
Poland: Lukasz Bojarski
Portugal: Manuel Malheiros
Romania: Romanita Iordache
Slovakia: Janka Debreceniov
Slovenia: Neza Kogovsek
Spain: Lorenzo Cachón Rodríguez
Sweden: Per Norberg
Turkey: Idil Isil Gül
United Kingdom: Aileen McColgan