Direc­tive on equal treat­ment of women and men in social secu­rity under scrutiny.

Directive 79/7/EEC on the progressive realisation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women in matters of social security was adopted by the Council of the European Union in 1979. It is intended to protect European citizens from direct and indirect gender-based discrimination. The EU Member States had to transpose the Directive into national law by 1984. Now the current status of the Directive is under scrutiny.

Current scope of appli­ca­tion

The Directive applies to employees and self-employed persons. The material scope of the Directive extends to the statutory social security systems in the areas of sickness, invalidity, old age, accidents at work and occupational diseases as well as unemployment. With a few exceptions, social assistance is excluded, as are survivors' benefits, family benefits and provisions for the protection of pregnant women. The Directive also contains a few exceptions that allow Member States to derogate from the principle of equal treatment. This applies, for example, to the retirement age, pension insurance concessions for people who have raised children and the acquisition of benefit entitlements following periods of employment interruption for raising children. Member States must regularly review the application of these exemptions.

Eval­u­a­tions and proposals for improve­ment

A revision of the Directive has been under discussion for some time. There are time and again evaluations, commissioned by the European Commission, most recently in 2019. One proposal for improvement mentioned there envisages a revision of the scope of the Directive, starting with the revocation of its exceptions. In addition, the most important case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is to be codified in the text of a revised directive. It is also proposed to standardise EU legislation by harmonising the key concepts of the relevant legal texts and to improve the enforcement of the principle of the Directive at national level through greater involvement of national equality (equal opportunities) bodies.

Update to the EPSCO discussed

At Spain's request, the Need to Update Directive 79/7 was discussed at the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) on 10 March. Spain argued that a lot has changed since the introduction of the Directive, which is why there are significant legal loopholes in the regulations. This would also lead to an administrative burden as the ECJ would have to decide more frequently on questions regarding the interpretation of the Directive. Spain made particular reference to the gender pension gap, for the closure of which the Directive does not allow positive discrimination. The Executive Vice-President for Social Rights and Skills, Quality Jobs and Preparedness, Roxana Mînzatu, assured to examine the application on behalf of the European Commission.