By Dan Pescod, Campaigns Manager, RNIB
Some newsletter readers may have had the courage to read the long article in the January-February 2016 edition introducing the European Accessibility Act, or “EAA” for short.
For their sake I will not rehearse the information provided in that edition. However, those new to the EAA may want to read that article to gain some background information. Below is a short update on more recent developments.
The proposed directive- which despite the Anglo-Saxon-sounding term “act” is indeed a proposal for an EU directive- will go through the usual, lengthy EU legislative process.
The Council (EU Member State representatives) has already begun a series of meetings to discuss the EAA. These take place behind closed doors in the “Working party on social questions”. In these meetings, the Dutch Presidency is seeking to achieve some sort of basic agreement on the Council's approach by the end of its term, before handing the baton to Slovakia.
We understand that the working party discussions have roamed widely over many issues. These include the link to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the scope of the proposed directive, the definitions used, the Commission's impact assessment and the cost of the new law to businesses. A member of the Commission would usually be expected to be present at such meetings to answer questions on the proposed new law. (The Commission wrote the proposal).
Since the Council process is not transparent, we cannot know exactly what is said in these meetings. EBU members have begun therefore to write to their respective governments, explaining the importance of the proposal and asking for support.
A recent meeting with the relevant UK minister betrayed a great reluctance, to say the least, to support such a new law. It is to be hoped that this outlook does not prevail across the 28 EU Member States.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament is sorting out the process by which it will scrutinise the proposed legislation. The “rapporteur” or leader on this matter in Parliament is the experienced French MEP Robert Rochefort. The leading Committee is almost certainly going to be the powerful Internal Market Committee, “IMCO”. In the past few weeks the various political groups in Parliament have been naming their “rapporteurs” for this proposal, and organising their method of working. The MEPs named as “rapporteurs” will follow and comment on the proposal for their political groups. EBU has been contacting these representatives to explain the need for the directive and to offer our expertise.
Some other parliamentary committees will also comment on the proposal, so the parliamentary process alone will be complex and require significant attention from EBU.
On 23rd February EBU and the European Disability Forum spoke on the EAA in the European Parliament at a meeting hosted by Swedish MEP Soraya Post and attended by other MEPs who will work on the EAA legislative process.
http://www.edf-feph.org/Page_Generale.asp?DocID=13855&thebloc=34415
EBU representatives have also been busy these past weeks meeting relevant MEPs, Council and Commission officials to urge a strong and effective EAA.
The Parliament had its first discussion on the EAA on 15th March. Unlike the Council, these discussions are on the record. Indeed, a video of the discussion is available below, with the EAA discussion starting at around 1.40.
It was clear from this preliminary discussion that the Chair of the IMCO Committee, in line with her party and the UK's position mentioned above, had her misgivings about the EAA proposal. The Rapporteur, Robert Rochefort, was substantially more upbeat in his assessment of the proposal, and even expressed regret that it had not appeared sooner.
It is expected that the main legislative process will start this summer. EBU will be working with our friends in EDF, ANEC, and across the disability community, to represent our views in this process, and really explain why we need this proposal to become law. It will be a long and hard project, but the potential rewards are great: an EU with far fewer barriers for blind and partially sighted people.