National governments and lawmakers in the European Parliament are uniting in pushing against an intended withdrawal of a long-stalled proposal that seeks to crack down on discrimination in the workplace.

Fourteen EU countries have sent a letter, dated July 1 and obtained by POLITICO, to Hadja Lahbib, the EU’s equality commissioner, urging the European Commission to reconsider its decision to axe the equal treatment directive. 

The EU executive in February proposed to withdraw the 2008 bill aimed at extending protection against discrimination in the workplace on grounds such as race, religion, disability, age and sexual orientation after 17 years of deadlock in the Council of the EU, where EU capitals hash out positions, as further progress was deemed by the Commission to be “unlikely.”

But social affairs ministers of Belgium, Estonia, France, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden want to save the directive from the chopping block. In the letter, they argued that “the support for this directive has never been greater” and urged the Commission to reengage with the remaining holdouts to “clarify what improvements can be made to arrive at the required unanimity.”

The move follows another letter from Parliament President Roberta Metsola, dated June 16 and obtained by POLITICO, in which the committee on civil liberties — which handled the file in Parliament — expressed “strong” opposition to the Commission’s plan to axe the file.

Lahbib emphasized in May in front of lawmakers that “it has not been possible to reach the required unanimity and there is no indication or clear prospect that unanimity could be reached in the foreseeable future.” 

Twenty-four countries supported the file in the Council talks, but three countries — Germany, the Czech Republic and Italy — blocked the directive. “We need unanimity in the Council, and while abstention is enough, objection is not,” Lahbib told lawmakers from the committee. 

If those three countries “specify which concerns prevent them from agreeing, or at least abstaining from a vote on the text,” this would allow them to find a compromise, Lahbib said, adding that “engaging with these three member states also has potential.”

The Commission in February gave the Parliament and the Council six months to express their — non-binding — opinion to the list of proposals it wanted to withdraw.