The Euro Disney group is going on trial in France for publishing an allegedly discriminatory job ad requesting that candidates have "European citizenship" to work as parade artists at its Disneyland Paris theme park.

  • Euro Disney is owner/operator of Disneyland Paris
  • Groups claim job ad discriminated on nationality grounds
  • Ad was published in a newspaper a decade ago

The trial in a court in Meaux, outside Paris, on Wednesday is following a complaint by anti-racist associations who claim Euro Disney, the company that owns and operates Disneyland Paris, discriminated on grounds of nationality in hiring dancers, bungee acrobats, jugglers, puppeteers and stilt walkers when it published the ad in a newspaper 10 years ago.

Euro Disney has acknowledged that the ad's wording was clumsy but has denied any discriminatory intent or any attempt to cast aside candidates originating from Africa.