Prohibiting airline pilots from working after the age of 60 constitutes discrimination on grounds of age

Urges the Government to ensure that equality, regardless of sex, gender, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation, is guaranteed by the law and effectively enforced; deplores the recent legal action against LGBTT associations but welcomes the fact that the cases in question were dismissed by the courts; notes, however, the need for further action against homophobia and discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation as provided for in the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers Recommen ...[+++]dation to Member States on measures to combat discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity; calls on the Turkish Government to instruct the Turkish Armed Forces to end its classification of homosexuality as a ‘psychosexual’ illness; asks that the Draft Law on Combating Discrimination and Equality Committee be brought into line with EU standards, including as regards the grounds of sex and sexual orientation; urges national and local authorities to put an end to the ongoing murders of transgender people, including transgender sex workers;

The aggravated consequences of discrimination on two or more grounds , for example age and sex in the case of older women seeking access to employment, need to be addressed in the implementation of relevant legislation as well as of the legal acts providing protection from discrimination on the other grounds referred to in Article 19 TFEU.

2. Notwithstanding Article 2(2), Member States may provide that the fixing for occupational social security schemes of ages for admission or entitlement to retirement or invalidity benefits, including the fixing under those schemes of different ages for employees or groups or categories of employees, and the use, in the context of such schemes, of age criteria in actuarial calculations, does not constitute discrimination on the grounds of age, provided this does not result in discrimination on the grounds of sex.

The anti-discrimination Directives: - prohibit discrimination on grounds of racial or ethnic origin (Directive 2000/43/EC) and religion or belief, disability, age and sexual orientation (Directive 2000/78/EC); - provide protection in a number of key areas of life: employment and vocational training (both Directives); education, social security and healthcare, and access to and supply of goods and services, including housing (Directive 2000/43/EC); - prohibit various forms of discrimination: direct and indirect discrimination, harassment, instruction to discriminate and victimisation; - require Member States to provide efficient sanctions and remedies.

In addition it is worth noting that experience of discrimination on the grounds of disability has some common features with the experience of discrimination on other grounds and indeed people with disabilities can be victims of multiple discrimination (on the grounds of sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, age or sexual orientation).