By Dan Pescod, Campaigns Manager, RNIB.
The Council discussions on the European Accessibility Act proposal (henceforth EAA), have continued. These deliberations take place behind closed doors. However, we do get the impression that the EU's governments are not comfortable with the EAA. More work will be needed from EBU and our friends in the European Disability Forum (EDF) among others to ensure that the Council properly understands the importance of -and need for- the EAA.
Next month Slovakia will take over the EU presidency, and we will make contact with the Slovakians to urge them to make the EAA a priority for the rest of 2016.
EBU attended a very well-attended hearing on the EAA in the European Parliament on 1st June, organised by the Green political group. EBU President Wolfgang Angermann and Rodolfo Cattani (the latter representing EDF) spoke of the importance of this proposal. I also spoke on the panel about the improvements to the EAA we would like to see, such as an enlargement of the areas it covers, and mandatory requirements to make the built environment accessible.
The European Parliament has now really begun its work on the EAA.
EBU was most surprised to see that the Parliament's Culture Committee proposed a number of amendments that would reduce the scope of the EAA. These amendments would remove such things as accessible TV broadcasts (for instance using audio description) and ebooks from the EAA.
EBU opposes these changes. We disagree with the Committee's draft opinion report which suggests that ensuring accessible audiovisual media services (TV etc) would be such a costly burden that it would undermine “cultural diversity”. The costs are small, in fact, for ensuring audio description on a TV programme, for instance; usually around one per cent of a programme's budget.
We have written to the Culture Committee members to say so, as well as meeting one of the key Committee members in Brussels, Sabine Verheyen MEP, to express our concerns.
Also in the field of audiovisual services, the 25th May saw a proposal by the European Commission to revise the "audiovisual media services" (AVMS) directive.
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/audiovisual-media-services-directive-avmsd
EBU was very surprised to see that the Commission proposed to delete the article on accessibility the current directive contains (Article 7). EBU has been urging the Commission to strengthen that article- not to delete it!
We are now therefore in a strange and contradictory position. The Commission says it deleted Article 7 of the AVMS directive because the EAA will (perhaps one day) cover accessibility. The Parliament's Culture Committee says that the EAA should not cover the accessibility of audiovisual media services, as these will be covered in the AVMS directive!!
The Culture Committee will vote on its draft opinion report on the EAA on the 13th July, so EBU will make representations to the Culture Committee MEPs again before then.
On 15th June EBU also had a useful meeting with officials from the Internal Market Committee lead Rapporteur, Robert Rochefort MEP (France, ALDE group) and we will ensure we help Mr Rochefort's office to understand the need for the EAA as the legislative work continues.
Some business organisations have spoken against the EAA, such as Business Europe. However, EBU had an interesting discussion with DigitalEurope (DE) – the organisation which represents the European ICT industry, about the proposed directive. We now better understand DE's lines of argument. DE says it supports some sort of EAA, though in truth it has concerns about most parts of the current proposal.
So; there is much work to be done to make the EAA both a reality and a strong and useful new law. The autumn will see the start of the really busy part of the legislative process in the European Parliament, with the Internal Market Committee (among others) getting down to business.
Despite the challenges and from some quarters, frankly, outright opposition, EBU has a track record of success when we deliver persistent and passionate campaigns. We all know of the great need for the EAA. There are still far too many barriers in the EU to blind, partially sighted and other people with disabilities. We have an excellent case to make for this law; the next few months will be a crucial time to make it!