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European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Speech by Commissioner Lahbib on Equality Data Brussels, 30 September 2026 Like many of you, I love music. Pop, jazz, rap, classical. You name it. One of my favourite artists is Rachmaninoff. Sometimes when I am listening to his music, what catches my attention is not the sound. It is the silence between the notes. Music is not only made of the notes we hear. It i...
European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Speech by Commissioner Lahbib on Equality Data Brussels, 30 September 2026 Like many of you, I love music. Pop, jazz, rap, classical. You name it. One of my favourite artists is Rachmaninoff. Sometimes when I am listening to his music, what catches my attention is not the sound. It is the silence between the notes. Music is not only made of the notes we hear. It is also shaped by the notes that are not played. Take away those silences, and you change the music. Our societies have silences too, and so do the data we use to make decisions about people's lives. These silences are the people who never show up in our data, the lives that disappear inside an average, the inequalities we simply cannot see. Sometimes, the most important thing a dataset can tell us is not who is there. It is who is missing. Five years ago, this Roundtable met for the first time. Back then, you asked a basic question: do we have the data we need to understand inequality in Europe? Today, we can ask a more ambitious one: how do we make sure the data we collect actually help us build a more equal Europe? Look around this room at all the different voices here today. That alone shows how far we have come. But there is still more to do. The Commission set up the Expert group on equality data in 2018 because of a simple problem: we cannot tackle discrimination if we cannot see it. The Group brought together Member States, the Commission, Eurostat, FRA, EIGE and Eurofound. It gave us a place to compare notes and find solutions together. Its Guidelines were an important milestone. They moved the debate from whether equality data should be collected to how we can collect and use them responsibly. Our first Roundtable in 2021 helped us challenge some persistent myths. One myth was that collecting information on ethnic origin, disability, or sexual orientation is incompatible with data protection. It is not. Europe's data protection rules protect people. They do not prevent responsible equality data collection. Another myth was that equality data are simply too difficult, too sensitive or too dangerous to collect. The reality is more complex. These data can be sensitive, and in the wrong hands, they can be used to discriminate. History gives us painful examples of personal records being used to identify, exclude, or persecute communities. That is why equality data must be collected with strong safeguards and clear rules and with the people concerned at the table. Since 2021, the Expert group has produced guidance on racial and ethnic equality data, LGBTIQ equality data, the GDPR, and national implementation. It has also helped shape the international debate, including through the UN Praia Group on Governance Statistics. In 2023, Eurostat set up its task force on equality and non-discrimination statistics. This is an important step towards clearer definitions and common standards, so we can compare data across Europe. Minister Higgins, thank you for being with us today, and for the Irish Presidency's strong support. Ireland has led by example. It was the first EU Member State to adopt an equality data strategy. FRA has played a vital role, gathering data on groups at particular risk of discrimination. EIGE and Eurofound give us the evidence and practical know-how we need. We will rely on all three to put this guidance into practice. The new Directives on standards for equality bodies also give equality bodies a stronger role in collecting and using data on discrimination. Step by step, we are strengthening our European system for equality data. But we must never forget that this is not about systems. It is about people. Equality data can tell us if a person with a disability can get a job, if a Roma child has the same chances at school as her classmates, and if an LGBTIQ+ person feels safe going to a doctor. This is where averages can mislead us. A country can grow richer while some communities grow poorer. Employment can rise while people with disabilities stay locked out. Averages give us the view from 30,000 feet, while equality data bring us back down to the street level. Good data replace assumptions with evidence. They reveal structural discrimination that would otherwise stay hidden, and they show us if our policies are working. Today the stakes are rising. Algorithms already help decide who sees a job offer, who gets a bank loan, and which patient gets treated first. The more our societies rely on data, the more dangerous the gaps become. But none of this works without trust. People need to know that their rights will be protected. Communities need a say in what is collected and how it is used. People need to see that their data make a real difference in their lives. If not, it is just another database. That is why this Roundtable brings together governments, statistical offices, equality bodies, EU agencies, civil society, academia, international organisations and the communities themselves. No institution can do this alone. That is especially important as we prepare for the next milestone: a Recommendation on equality data. It can turn what we have learned into clearer rules and help Member States make better use of the data they already hold, so that our figures are more reliable and easier to compare across Europe. But it will only work if it reflects reality on the ground. That is why your experience matters. Tell us where you hit barriers, what is working, and where we can do better. Five years after our first Roundtable, we have better tools and stronger cooperation. Now we need to use them. In the years ahead, the question will not be whether we have enough data. The question will be whether we have the right data to see everyone. Let me go back to the music. In a good song, every silence is there for a reason. The composer chose it. Our data will always have silences too. Some are necessary to protect people's privacy and dignity. Those are silences we choose. But there are other silences we never chose. They are the people left out because nobody thought to look, nobody thought to count them. Today my message is simple: we need to listen for those silences and fill the ones that should not be there. Together let's make sure those people are seen and then let's act on what we see. That is how we make sure no one in Europe becomes a missing note. SPEECH/26/2029 <@rel_link@>
Speech Brief