The European Commission didn't even put up a fight!
Fearing opposition from conservative member states, such as Germany, the legislative body scrapped plans to draw up gay inclusive employment discrimination laws. A representative from the group's employment arm remarked:
…We need to be realistic, and we have signals from some member states that they would not support such a horizontal directive and this, of course, is a problem because we need unanimity in council to get the proposal through.
Gay rights have been a big obstacle for European unity. For example, Poland's Senate recently passed its European Union charter sans gay rights, a staple of Union membership.
The Commission will now focus its energies on passing legislation to protect people with disabilities. Hopefully no one will object to that one.
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Unfortunately, this is the current state of the European Commission and EU Parliament: a blockage between the liberal, more developed western nations and the former communist nations, very conservative and religious (especially Poland, Latvia and Romania). But the directive could pass after the Lisbon Treaty (the so-called EU Constitution) gets in effect in 2009, since it renounces the unanimity clause.
Poland actually passed the Lisbon Treaty without The Fundamental Rights Charter (as the UK, but for different reasons), but it may sign it later on (the current party in charge is somewhat willing, but the bigoted polish president and his opposition party strongly opposes it).
I'd say something snarky about Europe, but we're hardly ones to talk, so I'll just sulk.
The EU really needs to start enforcing the rules on the new, backward, former Soviet countries. A pre-condition for joining was protection for gays, and they all agreed to it. But now, they've refused to pass the appropriate bills in their parliaments and are actually forcing the commission to drop gay-friendly legislation. It's incredibly annoying. I hope those countries are rejected for failing to keep their side of the agreement.
I think the E.U. should tell these backwaters like Latvia, Romania, and Poland to get with the program or get the hell out. In the U.K., Poles are viewed as the equivalent of Mexicans in the U.S.
LEOMOORE said: "I think the E.U. should tell these backwaters like Latvia, Romania, and Poland to get with the program or get the hell out."
Might I add, or join the U.S. Right now there doesn't seem to be that much difference between us when it concerns to Gay rights.