Prohibition of Discrimination

Anne Peters is Professor of International and Constitutional Law, University of Basel,  and currently fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin. 1. Background and core contents of the proposed Directive On 14 November 2012, the EU Commission tabled a proposal for a Directive on a highly sensitive issue and did so without using the ‘Q-word’ (COM(2012) 614 final). The Commission bases its proposal on Art. 157(3)TFEU which empowers the EU to adopt ‘measures to ensure the application of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation’. The proposed Directive requires that ‘Member States shall ensure that listed companies in whose boards members of the under-represented sex hold less than 40 percent of the non-executive director positions make the appointments to those positions on the basis of a comparative analysis of  the qualifications of each candidate, by applying pre-established, clear, neutrally formulated and unambiguous criteria, in order to attain the said percentage at the latest by 1 January 2020 or at the latest…