The development by the EU of special measures to promote disadvantaged groups, like racial minorities, will be discussed at a conference in Innsbruck this week.
The conference, "Combating Racial Discrimination: Affirmative Action as a Model for Europe" is organised by the University of Innsbruck with the support of the European Commission. It takes place tomorrow and on Friday.
Europe has traditionally seen itself as a continent exporting emigrants to other continents. But it is now facing problems as a continent receiving immigrants, according to Prof Erna Appelt of the university's politics department. Prof Appelt is the author of the keynote document for the conference.
She points out that the Amsterdam Treaty established a Consultative Commission against Racism and Xenophobia, and a new article in the treaty envisages legislation against discrimination on racial grounds. However, these fall far short of a new definition of the European Union "as an open, multicultural, immigration society", she says.
Prof Appelt argues that the right to be treated as an equal may, in certain circumstances, include the right to certain preferential treatment without violating the principle of equality.
She says the Canadian experience with affirmative action has been less controversial, and may also be more relevant to Europe, than that of the US. The EU already has a raft of anti-discrimination legislation relating to women, Prof Appelt points out, and this could provide a framework for measures to combat racial discrimination.