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http://www.euronews.com/ Diversity is important to companies. It's a source of creativity and innovation. It recognises that different points of view are important in a growing multi-cultural world. Studies show that this idea is gaining momentum around Europe, but studies also show that discrimination is still widespread in the work place.

Euronews spoke to a man who, between 1993 and 2004, was a victim of discrimination in France. Because of what happened he wants to remain anonymous; we'll call him Marc.

He said: "I was met with great hostility because of my homosexuality. You would come back from lunch and on your desktop would be a note reading 'Death to the faggot' or 'Dirty faggot'. You're working and you receive anonymous phone calls - death threats. And you're put down all the time, given the worst jobs and you can, as happened with me, end up for months and months in a room, completely isolated, without being given any work, without seeing anyone."

In 2000, two EU directives were introduced, they provided a legal framework to fight against discrimination at work.

These guidelines recognised Marc's sexuality and gave him the legal rights to protect himself.

"Europe showed that homosexuals had the right to respect too. Europe allowed us to defend ourselves in the workplace. I learned very quickly and I used what I had learned," Marc added.

After a long, hard fight, Marc won the battle against his tormentors. They were demoted and he received compensation.

Anne Devineaux, reporting on this story for euronews, explains: "The European Union has one set up of the most advanced legal systems in the fight against discrimination. In each country there is an independent public agency that is responsible for promoting equal opportunities."

These organisations are based on the EU directive introduced in 2000. Their role is to help enforce anti-discrimination law. They are now part of a network called Equinet.

At its head is Jozef De Witte, who also runs the Centre for Equal Opportunity in Belgium.

He said: "First we have to make clear to people that they have a fundamental right not to be discriminated against. And that they can address, if they have a discrimination problem, a public body like the Equality body, to find a solution. We can start an investigation on a case, we can talk with all the partners, with the other party for example, who committed the discrimination, to stop the discrimination, to look for some compensation for the victim and to make sure the discrimination does not take place. "

Legal protection has been introduced in the European Union - there are at least six areas concerning discrimination including ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, and religion.

Despite the legal protection, proving discrimination on any of these grounds is often difficult.

Yacouba Barry from Burkina Faso is a French citizen. He passed the exam to become a school head master. He was very successful and so between 2007 and 2009 completed further training as a deputy head in a college near Paris. There he encountered racial discrimination from the head.

"As soon as she saw me, her first words were 'What are you doing? I don't want you here, I will do anything to get rid of you.' It was like that for two years. She constantly humiliated and persecuted me," said Yacouba Barry.

Despite documented evidence of his competency and the support of his colleagues, he was denied the right to be a college principal.

"The education system is among the institutions that does most in the fight against all forms of discrimination, but in the field there is sometimes a big gap between the laws and how they're implemented," he said.

Yacouba Barry is currently waiting for his case to be heard in an administrative court. "I'm waiting for justice, until then I'm suffering," he said.

"Being refused just for what you are and not for what you do is very difficult. And so quite a lot of people are not wanting to address the situation of discrimination because they feel so offended and so vulnerable that it is a difficult case to empower those people to bring a case to a equality body, even to bring to bring a case before a court," said Jozef De Witte.

Anne Devineaux of euronews, said: "Fighting discrimination encourages the development of diversity policies in companies. Diversity charters have been introduced in most parts of Europe. By signing, companies agree to promote equal opportunities."


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