National information

When Member States adopted the two Directives in 2000, they agreed a timetable for implementing them. Member States were given until 19 July 2003 to make the changes to national legislation needed to comply with the Racial Equality Directive and until 2 December 2003 to do the same in respect of the Employment Equality Directive.

In the case of the new Member States, the obligation was to have legislation complying with the two Directives in place by the time they entered the Union.

Leaving aside age and disability, a number of Member States have not managed to meet these deadlines for the full implementation of the Directives. In some of these cases, however, changes have already been made to national legislation but have not yet taken effect or are in the process of being made.

No attempt, it should be emphasised, is made to cover developments in all countries systematically or to examine the wording of legislation in detail. It should also be made clear that this report does not assess the whether legislation in Member States complies fully with the Directives. The information presented below, moreover, relates to the situation as at 1 May, 2004.

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