Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU fails to draft a new compromise on the Equal Treatment Directive

Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU fails to draft a new compromise on the Equal Treatment Directive

On 1 December 2025, the EU’s ministers on employment and social affairs met in a Council of the EU meeting to discuss the Danish Presidency’s* progress note on the Equal Treatment Directive.

To recall, as reported in Previous EPR News Articles (available here, here and here), in February 2025, the European Commission (EC) had announced its intention to withdraw the Equal Treatment Directive proposal – a decision received as a significant setback for anti-discrimination efforts within the EU by civil society. However, in October 2025, the proposal was ultimately maintained, and did not appear in the European Commission’s final list of withdrawals. This Directive aims to establish EU-wide protections against discrimination based on religion or belief, disability, age, or sexual orientation in areas beyond employment, such as social protection, education, and access to goods and services.

The last step remaining to adopt the Equal Treatment Directive is reaching a unanimous vote at the Council of the EU (meaning that all EU Member States must agree), which has not been achieved since the start of Council negotiations in 2009. Although the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU aimed to bring this issue to the agenda Council Meeting of 1 December, previous negotiations already underlined the impossibility to reach unanimity due to the reservations of 3 Member States. For this same reason, it was not possible for the Danish Presidency to put forward a new compromise text.

* Every 6 months, a new Member State has the presidency of the Council of the EU. Each Presidency of the Council of the EU has its own priorities, which are topics that they are interested in including in the agenda of the different meetings between EU ministers, in order to advance the policies’ legislative process and to reach common positions.

Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU’s progress report on the Equal Treatment Directive available here.