In 2006, a study of national anti-discrimination laws was carried out for the Commission to draw a picture of the legal protection against discrimination that already exists in the EU.The study concluded that "the level of protection against discrimination based on religion and belief, age, disability and sexual orientation is lower than that afforded in the case of discrimination based on race". The Commission thus came to the conclusion that a new initiative was necessary. (See http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/fundamental_rights/pdf/pubst/stud/mapstrand1_en.pdf)

In 2007, the Commission started a public consultation process to assess the need for new EU legislation in the field of non-discrimination. NGOs, trade unions and businesses were consulted among other actors. The results of the public consultation are available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/fundamental_rights/org/imass_en.htm#pr

In its 2008 work programme, the Commission announced that a legislative proposal for a Directive implementing the principle of equal treatment outside employment would be a priority initiative. The Commission also carried out an impact assessment (i.e. an evaluation of the need for EU legislation in this area). The Impact Assessment Report concludes that a legally binding measure at Community level extending the scope of protection against discrimination on grounds of age, disability, sexual orientation and religion or belief would be the best suited instrument to step up the protection from discrimination. (See full text of the Impact Assessment Report).

Until March 2008, it was clear that the Commission’s intention was a fairly minimal ‘levelling up’ to bring the other grounds to the same level of the Race Directive – with the exception of gender, which was unlikely to be included in any new proposal. However, this process was plagued by uncertainty. Rumours suggested that the scope may be limited to goods and services, excluding for example education and health. Other rumours suggested that the proposal would not cover religion or belief or sexual orientation. At a meeting in the Parliament in March before the Gender committee, President Barroso talked about proposing a disability-specific directive, a position later confirmed by Commission representatives in the media. Reasons invoked for the change in position included the difficulty to reach consensus in Council on a horizontal directive and the opposition expressed by some Member States to new EU anti-discrimination legislation.

In the spring of 2008, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) mobilized to call for single equality legislation in response to the Commission’s shift from a multi-ground approach to a ground-specific one. One action was the online petition launched by MEP Liz Lynne (see http://www.signtostopdiscrimination.org/). In May 2008, the European Parliament adopted a report on the transposition of existing EU anti-discrimination directives in which it explicitly called for a new single directive to level up the protection against discrimination based on age, disability, sexual orientation, religion and belief. See European Parliament Report on progress made in equal opportunities and non-discrimination in the EU from 19 May 2008.

Campaigning by civil society actors, including ILGA-Europe, and the mobilization of the MEPs significantly contributed to another change in the Commission’s position, which ultimately adopted a proposal in line with its original commitment to bring forward legislation to level up protection against discrimination based on four grounds.