Allister prepares to step up anti 50:50 campaign

19 November 2005

EU Council Directive 2000/78/EC prohibits employment discrimination throughout the EU but grants a derogation to the UK Government to legitimize 50:50 recruitment to the PSNI.  With the EU Commission due to report to the Parliament in 2006, Member States have to report to Brussels by 2/12/05 on their implementation of this Directive.  Thus the UK Government will have to try and persuade Europe that it continues to be appropriate to discriminate against Protestant applicants in respect of the PSNI.

As previously announced, my office is compiling a dossier for presentation to the Commission setting out the reasons why an end should be put to the derogation permitting denial of fundamental employment rights to Protestants in Northern Ireland.  In this connection, and as a means of highlighting how absurd the present position is,  I have tabled a Question for Oral Answer in Strasbourg in the following terms:-

“Is there any group, other than Protestants in Northern Ireland, against which the Commission sanctions discrimination in employment (pursuant to Article 15 of  2000/78/EC)?

By posing the question in this way I hope to focus attention on how intolerable it is in the 21st century to have religious discrimination tolerated in a Europe which prides itself in upholding human rights.

I anticipate presenting my dossier to the Commission shortly.

EU Parliament