The end of the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All was celebrated in Lisbon in November and could boast of over 1,000 activities having been organised in 30 countries. The aim was to raise 'people’s awareness of a right to a life free of discrimination’ and to highlight ‘the benefits of diversity for society as a whole’. Linked to the campaign was the publication of a Eurobarometer survey which measured the awareness of, and attitude to, discrimination across the EU. The ‘diversity truck’, which made 99 stops during 2007, was visited by over half a million people while a partnership with the Eurovision Song Contest brought the message to 100 million television viewers.
However the survey revealed a lot of work still to do. In the field of employment large majorities of respondents believed that being over 50, disabled, non-White or a foreigner reduced your chances of getting a job, being promoted or accepted for training. Significant numbers of people saw being female or homosexual as a handicap in the labour market as well. Most people taking part thought that more should be done to combat discrimination in their country and were willing to provide personal information on their ethnic origin, religion, health and sexual orientation on an anonymous basis, though there were significant variations between Member States. On the whole the majority in the ‘old’ 15 EU countries thought that ethnic discrimination had increased in the last five years while the opposite was true in the ‘new’, mainly east European members. According to Equal Opportunities Commissioner Špidla ‘The success of the Year gives us all an impetus to push forward our efforts to make equality a reality for everyone in Europe’. The Commission plans to tackle discrimination beyond the workplace in 2008 and use the best ideas in its ‘Progress’ programme.

If you compare the situation with 5 years ago, would you say that discrimination based on ethnic origin is more common or less common in (OUR COUNTRY)? Member State % more common Netherlands 77 Belgium 67 Denmark 67 France 60 Ireland 59 Malta 57 Italy 57 UK 54 Hungary 53 Luxembourg 53 Sweden 50 EU25 49 Portugal 49 Austria 48 Greece 47 Slovenia 46 Cyprus 43 Spain 43 Slovakia 43 Germany 41 Bulgaria 38 Finland 36 Czech Republic 34 Romania 29 Estonia 26 Latvia 26 Lithuania 23 Poland 22