European Parliament calls for a strong EU Disability Strategy

As the current EU Disability Strategy comes to an end, the European Parliament is calling the European Commission for an ambitious post-2020 strategy, in which we can find some Inclusion Europe’s priorities.

European Parliament calls for a strong EU Disability Strategy

As the current EU Disability Strategy comes to an end, the European Parliament is calling the European Commission for an ambitious post-2020 strategy, in which we can find some Inclusion Europe’s priorities.

Last year, Inclusion Europe called for the future European Disability Strategy to:

  1. Address the importance of the right to make decisions;
  2. Establish clear targets to end segregation;
  3. Address violence against women with intellectual disabilities;
  4. Recognise the role of families in fulfilling rights and providing support to their relatives with disabilities;
  5. Connect to peoples‘ experiences and be easier to understand.

Read our opinion in full (.pdf)

On 18 June 2020 European Parliament adopted a resolution for a new EU Disability Strategy post-2020, in which we can find some Inclusion Europe’s priorities

It calls on the European Commission to present a strategy that, among other things:

  • includes a child-sensitive approach;
  • is aimed at adult people with disabilities and gives special attention to those with intellectual disabilities and their future after the death of their carer.

The resolution also:

  • calls on the Member States to fully implement and continuously monitor all accessibility-related legislation, including the European Accessibility Act, the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, the Telecoms Package and the Web Accessibility Directive, and the relevant transport and passengers rights regulations;
  • calls on the Commission and the Member States to boost public investment in order to secure accessibility for persons with disabilities to both the physical and digital environments;
  • calls on the Commission to ensure that the post-2020 Strategy will especially promote guaranteed access to employment, vocational and professional training, inclusive education, affordable quality healthcare services, digital services, and sport activities for persons with disabilities, including by ensuring that reasonable accommodation is provided in the workplace, and that persons with disabilities are paid at the same level as employees without disabilities, and avoiding and preventing that any other ways of discrimination will be possible;
  • calls on the Member States to further develop and/or better implement measures that promote the participation of people with disabilities in the labour market and to recognise persons with disabilities working in sheltered workshops as workers under the law and to ensure that they are entitled to the same social protection as other workers;
  • calls on the Member States to ensure access for persons with disabilities to health services that are gender-sensitive, including health-related rehabilitation and, when applicable, long-term care;
  • calls on the Commission to ensure that persons deprived of their legal capacity can exercise all the rights enshrined in European Union treaties and legislation;
  • notes with regret that current European policies on the rights of the child do not sufficiently include a comprehensive rights-based strategy for boys and girls with disabilities, nor do they contain safeguards to protect their rights, and that the disability strategies do not sufficiently address or mainstream them;
  • calls on the Commission to improve access to essential services and social rights for vulnerable children (specifically, healthcare, education, early childhood education and care, nutrition and housing);
  • stresses that the right to live independently and to be included in the community is integral to the realisation of many of the other rights enshrined in the CRPD, including equality and non-discrimination, autonomy and liberty, legal capacity and freedom of movement;
  • calls on the Commission to actively promote the transition from institutional and/or segregating care to community-based support, including personal assistance, and inclusive services (both mainstream and tailor-made), in all EU policy tools and initiatives; calls, further, on the Commission to ensure that overall progress in deinstitutionalisation is included as an indicator in the EU social scoreboard;
  • calls on the Commission to safeguard the CRPD-compliant use of EU funds and to ensure that EU funds do not contribute to the construction or refurbishment of institutional care settings or any other kind of settings that could easily turn into an institution, or to projects that do not meaningfully involve persons with disabilities, their representative family members and organisations, and are not invested in structures that are inaccessible to persons with disabilities;
  • calls on the Commission and Member States to develop a comprehensive campaign that involves persons with disabilities, their representative family members and organisations, which is available in accessible formats, including an easy-to-read version, and national sign languages in order to raise awareness of the CRPD, the rights and needs of persons with disabilities and the barriers they face among persons with disabilities, duty-bearers and society in general; calls on the Commission and Member States to promote, coordinate and create educational material that can be used in the Member States in order to promote positive attitudes about persons with disabilities and to improve their inclusion;
  • calls on all Member States to urgently tackle the issue of homelessness by adopting long-term, housing-led, integrated homelessness strategies at national, regional and local level and to recognise the particular risks experienced by people with disabilities, including those on the autism spectrum.

More information here.

On 1 July 2020, Inclusion Europe director Milan Sverepa contributed to a consultation on the next European Disability Strategy, organised by Helena Dalli, the EU Commissioner for Equality

Alongside other EU disability organisations, Inclusion Europe recognises the significance of the strategy to date. And we have clear expectations for the next one!

Throughout the strategy, particular attention needs to be paid to:

  • Children with intellectual disabilities and their families;
  • Women with intellectual disabilities;
  • People with complex support needs and their families.

Read our article about EU Disability Strategy here..

 

Today I had the pleasure of contributing to a consultation on the next European Disability Strategy, organised by Helena…

Posted by Milan Sverepa on Wednesday, 1 July 2020

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