SAGA saved following Conservative pressure in Brussels
Posted, April 24, 2008 @ 00:00
New anti-discrimination law could have stopped SAGA and Club 18-30 from targeting age groups
Strasbourg, 24th April 2008 - Giles Chichester MEP, Conservative Leader in the European Parliament, has succeeded in diluting an EU proposal which could have destroyed top UK companies like SAGA and Club 18-30.
The Commission proposal is aimed at outlawing discrimination in society as a whole, not just inside the workplace, and could have prohibited companies from targeting their services at specific age groups.
Although the Commission's plans are likely to be tabled before the summer, Mr Chichester has been assured that they will concentrate only on achieving equal access for the disabled. In a reply to the Conservatives, the Commission stated that no longer will 'there be a potential impact on the business model of companies offering holidays to specific age groups.'
Mr Chichester said:
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions but it shouldn't be the job of any government to tell companies who they can and cannot sell to however laudable the objectives might be.
"The lesson of the last twenty years is clear: people prosper when a free market prospers. Conservatives will always fight against laws which threaten successful businesses and therefore jobs."
The Conservatives were supported in their argument by a Populus poll conducted in March 2008, in which 71% of the 4312 adults questioned across the EU said that it was acceptable for businesses to target age groups and 64% opposed a law against such a practice.