Dear Mr X,

On 5 February 2021, you submitted a complaint to the European Ombudsman concerning the European Commission’s reply to your request that it should finance research on racial discrimination in the EU financial sector. You consider that the Commission is refusing to examine racism in this sector.

After a careful analysis of all the information you have sent us, we do not find any indication of maladministration in how the Commission replied to your emails. ^[1]

In December 2019, the Commission informed you that the Race Equality Directive^[2] prohibits discrimination based on race or ethnic origin also in the context of access to financial services and that the prohibition can be invoked before national courts. The Commission said that, in order to initiate and finance research on the matter, it would need evidence that there is an ongoing general discrimination.

In February 2021, the Commission further acknowledged that accurate and comparable data is essential to assess the scale and nature of discrimination and for designing, adapting, monitoring and evaluating policies. The Commission said that in the context of the EU anti-racism action plan 2020-2025^[3], it will launch action to drive a consistent approach on equality data collection.

We find that the Commission has provided you with reasonable and informative replies on the matter. On the basis of the above, we have closed the case.^[4]

We understand that this may not be the outcome that you expected, nevertheless, we hope you find these explanations helpful.

Yours sincerely,

 

Tina Nilsson
Head of the Case-handling Unit

Strasbourg, 10/03/2021

 

[1] This complaint has been dealt with under delegated case handling, in accordance with Article 11 of the Decision of the European Ombudsman adopting Implementing Provisions, https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/legal-basis/implementing-provisions/en#hl10.

[2] Council Directive 2000/43/EC implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic originhttps://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32000L0043.

[3] Available at https://ec.europa.eu/info/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/combatting-discrimination/racism-and-xenophobia/eu-anti-racism-action-plan-2020-2025_en.

[4] Full information on the procedure and rights pertaining to complaints can be found at https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/document/70707.