(2004/C 33 E/213)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2079/03

by Mario Borghezio (NI) to the Commission

(17 June 2003)

Subject:   French swimming pools reserved for Muslim women — is this discrimination?

According to press reports (see ‘Le Figaro’, 11 June 2003), some French public swimming pools have created segregated areas for men and women in an attempt to win favour with the local Muslim communities.

Does the Commission not believe that this sets a disturbing precedent and represents a surrender by public bodies to the most extreme demands of Islamic fundamentalism?

Does the Commission not consider this forced segregation to be in clear breach of the principles of gender equality and equal treatment, as well as being contrary to the general principles of Community law?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(23 July 2003)

The Honourable Member is referring to recent press reports according to which French public swimming pools ‘have created segregated areas for women and men in an attempt to win favour with the local Muslim communities’.

The Commission considers that such measures facilitate the daily life of both Muslim and non-Muslim women who prefer to use the facilities on a single-sex basis. Indeed, a number of French swimming pools have reserved specific times of the day when women and men can use, if they wish, the facilities separately from each other.

The Commission does not believe that this measure may be qualified as ‘a surrender by public bodies to the most extreme demands of Islamic fundamentalism’ given that women and men are free to use the swimming pools at any other time of the day as well. The Commission neither considers this measure as a breach of the principles of gender equality and equal treatment but rather as a means for ensuring the respect of both the personal preferences of certain people and the religious habits of some members of the Muslim communities.