This article discusses the evolution of European Union (EU) legislation and policymaking methods during the 10 years since the onset of the financial and economic crisis in 2007/2008. In the EU, this period has been characterized by politics of stimulus, austerity, and recovery. Against the backdrop of longer term developments in equality law, we consider how the crisis context influenced this field’s evolution. Through the analysis of a range of legislative and policy proposals, we show that the progressive softening or hybridization of equality law over this period has gone hand in hand with the stronger articulation of equality objectives in terms of a “business case.” While this approach appears to have enabled the proliferation of policy and legal instruments and expanded the reach of equality law into areas where the EU has limited competence to legislate, it has also elevated instrumental economic goals for action at expense of human rights or social rationales. This longer term tendency is also present in the recently adopted European Pillar of Social Rights, and the accompanying policy documentation, which have been hailed as carrying potential to infuse more coherence and to rebalance the social and economic rationales that the EU integration project has unevenly promoted over the years. Mindful that it is still too early for conclusive judgments, we suggest, however, that the transformative possibilities the Pillar carries are likely to be undermined by its soft and economically oriented thrust.

中文翻译：

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紧缩十年后的欧盟平等法

本文讨论了自 2007/2008 年金融和经济危机爆发以来的 10 年间欧盟 (EU) 立法和决策方法的演变。在欧盟，这一时期的特点是刺激政策、紧缩政策和复苏政策。在平等法长期发展的背景下，我们考虑危机背景如何影响该领域的演变。通过对一系列立法和政策建议的分析，我们表明，在此期间，平等法的逐渐软化或混合与在“商业案例”方面更强有力地阐明平等目标齐头并进。” 虽然这种方法似乎促进了政策和法律文书的扩散，并将平等法的范围扩大到了欧盟立法能力有限的领域，但它也提高了以牺牲人权或社会理由为代价采取行动的工具性经济目标. 这种长期趋势也出现在最近通过的欧洲社会权利支柱和随附的政策文件中，它们被誉为具有注入更多一致性和重新平衡欧盟一体化项目不均衡促进的社会和经济原理的潜力这些年来。然而，考虑到现在做出结论性判断还为时过早，但我们建议，支柱所承载的变革可能性可能会被其软性和以经济为导向的推动力所削弱。