EU antidiscrimination policy and its unintended domestic consequences: The institutionalization of multiple equalities in Italy

From the adoption of Article 13 of the Treaty of Amsterdam and the 2000/43/EC and 2000/78/EC directives, the European Union (EU) has started to develop antidiscrimination policies that address multiple inequalities. Yet, as the analysis of the institutionalization of multiple equalities in Italy shows, the domestic implementation of EU antidiscrimination directives can produce unintended consequences. The paper analyses the machinery and legislation introduced in Italy to implement the EU antidiscrimination directives, with a focus on ethnicity and sexual orientation. It argues that while the EU has opened opportunities for the institutionalisation of equality policies in Italy, national gatekeepers and political dynamics have affected the type of institutionalization that occurred, provoking unintended consequences, such as resistance to implement EU antidiscrimination directive or the twisting of the latter into discriminatory provisions. We conclude by exploring some of the reasons for the unintended consequences of EU policies to institutionalise multiple equalities in Italy. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.