This opinion illustrates the extent and nature of lived experiences of inequality and discrimination across the EU. It does so with reference to the grounds of discrimination and areas of life covered by the racial and employment equality directives, as well as in relation to the grounds and areas covered by the proposed Equal Treatment Directive.

Almost twenty years after adoption of EU laws forbidding discrimination, people of African descent in the EU face widespread and entrenched prejudice and exclusion. This report outlines selected results from FRA's second large-scale EU-wide survey on migrants and minorities (EU-MIDIS II). It examines the experiences of almost 6,000 people of African descent in 12 EU Member States.

Seventeen years after adoption of EU laws that forbid discrimination, immigrants, descendants of immigrants, and minority ethnic groups continue to face widespread discrimination across the EU and in all areas of life – most often when seeking employment. For many, discrimination is a recurring experience. This is just one of the findings of FRA’s second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey (EU-MIDIS II), which collected information from over 25,500 respondents with different ethnic minority and immigrant backgrounds across all 28 EU Member States.