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“Taking Stock of Twenty Years of EU Equality Law and Policymaking and Looking Ahead”

The development of equality legislation at European Union (EU) level is one of the major achievements of the European integration project, and its role in driving advances in equality law and policy in many EU member states is undeniable. Year 2019 will mark two decades since the Treaty of Amsterdam came into force in 1999. The latter introduced former Article 13 of the Treaty Establishing the European Community (current Article 19 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union), thereby expanding the legal base for adopting EU legislation to six new anti-discrimination grounds, namely: race or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age, and sexual orientation. This anniversary provides an auspicious moment for not only taking stock of accomplishments and critically reflecting on the past, but also for moving forward. Indeed, the recent adoption of the European Pillar of Social Rights (‘the Pillar’) suggests that EU equality law and policy could now be at a pivotal point. Accordingly, the contributions in this special issue engage not only with the evolution with EU equality law since its inception but also with this new context; they also point to what might be a possible way ahead for this key area of EU acquis. The papers that follow originate from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded project entitled Rethinking EU Equality Law: Towards a More Coherent and Sustainable Regime. This latter initiative emerged from previous collaboration