Country studies for the project ‘Protection against discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics in the EU, Comparative legal analysis, Update 2015

The Employment Directive was transposed into the “Equal Treatment Law” of 28 November 2006 on equal treatment (the “Law”). 1 The law’s definitions of direct and indirect discrimination includes all the elements in the definitions of the concept given in the Employment Directive, in particular less favourable treatment because of an individual’s sexual orientation as grounds for a finding of direct or indirect discrimination. The Equal treatment law amends the Labour and Criminal Codes, following very closely the provisions of the Employment Directive. By transposing both the Employment Directive and the Racial Equality Directive in the same piece of legislation, the Law broadens the Employment Directive’s material scope of the application, the “Equal Treatment Law” . The law also provides for the establishment of a Centre for Equal Treatment (CET) (Centre pour l’égalité de traitement, CET), which began to set up the elements necessary for its operation at the end of 2007. The CET has emphasised that its mission provides it with no binding powers over institutions or private persons that do not wish to collaborate with it; and believes that its investigative powers should be strengthened.