In September 2020, the Commission adopted the EU anti-racism action plan for 2020-2025, which aims to boost action against racism and discrimination in the EU.
EPHA strongly supports the EU anti-racism action plan and other EU anti-discrimination strategies for a Union of Equality and praises the momentum created over the past three years. However, the momentum is not equally spread across the EU and across sectors, illustrated by the delayed submission of many national action plans against racism (NAPARs) and the lack of tangible actions or commitments in the EU HEALTH policy domain.
Therefore, on behalf of the DisQo anti-discrimination & health equity network, we call for:
- Introducing a specific focus and tangible actions on reducing health inequalities based on racial or ethnic origin in relevant documents, in particular the EU4Health programme, paired with funding
- Increased transparency and stronger civil society engagement, in the anti-racism policy mainstreaming, including for the Task Force on Equality
Further, in line with the Joint Statement submitted by the DisQo network to DG Sante in May 2023, five key priorities were identified for addressing the issue in a constructive, respectful, and participatory way:
- Recognise racism and discrimination as fundamental determinants of health, equity and well-being
- Strengthen social participation of racialised and discriminated communities, and foster diversity, representation and anti-discrimination
- Increase clarity and consistency of key definitions related to racism, discrimination and health equity
- Collect more (health) equality data, disaggregated by indicators on multiple grounds of discrimination, and harmonise EU data collection
- Strengthen existing EU anti-discrimination legislation by breaking down silos and boosting policy mainstreaming, transparency, reparative justice and social participation