Marrakesh Treaty
With Liechtenstein ratifying the Treaty in late October, the following European countries remain that still need to join: Iceland, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Moldova, Ukraine, and Turkey.
At the annual meeting of our Commission for Liaising with the EU, we agreed to gather input on the implementation of the Treaty in the EU, through a survey to our members in the EU, in the context of the second review of the EU by the UN CRPD Committee, scheduled for spring 2022.
Reform of EU electoral law
Together with EDF, we continued to lobby the European Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs committee (AFCO). The amendments tabled by MEPs or groups very largely reflect our recommendations, although with considerably more support from the S&D and Greens/ELA groups than from others. We will need to continue our lobbying ahead of the AFCO vote on the amendments, likely in December.
Equal Treatment Directive
In October, EDF met with the Rapporteur in the European Parliament to discuss regressive amendments that had been made in the first half of 2021 by the Portuguese presidency. We will liaise with EDF in the preparation of an EDF position to lobby the French Presidency and the Commission.
Web Accessibility Directive
At the annual meeting of our Commission for Liaising with the EU, our members were informed again about the EDF Training Toolkit on the implementation of the Directive.
European Accessibility Act
As a result of the annual meeting of our Commission for Liaising with the EU, we plan to sound out the possibility to set up a taskforce to make specific recommendations for the implementation of the Act as far as payment terminals are concerned, and maybe also self-service terminals.
European Disability Platform
After the publication of the EU Disability Rights Strategy 2021-2030 in March, and the disappointing Council conclusions, the European Commission has launched the call for organisations to join the new Disability Platform. Reminder: this Platform, which replaces the High Level Group on Disability, will meet four times per year and will be formed by the focal points at EU and national level, in addition to representatives of organisations of persons with disabilities and service providers. Disappointingly, the new Platform does not have the power to propose initiatives or to evaluate actions and remains essentially a place of discussion and exchange. However, DPOs represented will now have full membership instead of observer status. EBU responded positively to the call, to be represented by our President and alternatively by the Chair of our Commission for Liaising with the EU.
Review of the EU by the UN CRPD Committee
At the annual meeting of our Commission for Liaising with the EU, it was decided that EBU would contribute to the EDF alternative report.
Events
On 20-21 November, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, we had the annual meeting of our Commission for Liaising with the EU, in which we took stock of noteworthy EU developments in the past year and discussed future steps in advocacy and campaigning, as well as internal organisation matters. Due to the sanitary context, after the fully online edition of 2020, this edition was with a mix of physical and online participation.