Pregnancy discrimination in the national courts: is there a common EU framework?

This paper compares how German and Dutch courts integrate the European equality framework within their national systems using pregnancy discrimination within employment law as a case study. Within the EU, the principle of non-discrimination is well developed and prohibits vertical as well as horizontal discrimination in order to foster substantive equality. Today, it is one of the key elements of the EU human rights policy and covers a wide range of protected grounds. As a result, national courts cannot ignore the EU equality framework. However, the reception of EU nondiscrimination law still depends on the national legal and cultural background and, in particular, the national courts’ response to the European challenge to readdress national equality concepts, which often focus on vertical relationships alone. This paper evaluates how and to what extent the EU nondiscrimination law framework impacted on the national approaches towards pregnancy discrimination. As such, it highlights the differences between the Member States and the national influences on the application of the EU rules but also demonstrates the EU influence, which can promote but also hinder the development of a coherent equality framework.