The European Commission offers this statement about diversity.
‘As well as ensuring that people from different groups do not suffer discrimination, recognising diversity means understanding how people’s differences and similarities can be mobilised for the benefit of the individual, the organisation and society as a whole. Managing our diversity by ensuring fairness and equality is becoming not just a “good thing”, but also an imperative in a changing and complex world’.
Each Member State has a history, culture and set of values that make a single, final definition of diversity difficult to agree. For this report, the European Commission’s statement reflects the broad understanding of the issue of diversity that emerged from discussions held during the Human Resources Working Group of the European Public Administration Network under the UK Presidency of the EU.