On 6 June we attended the European Disability Forum’s quarterly meeting with its European-level members, to discuss priorities for the second half of the EU Disability Rights Strategy 2021-2030. In follow-up, we sent our written contribution for this. The European Commission expects input on the monitoring, evaluation and revision of the Strategy from civil society organisations by 8 July.
On 15 June, we attended the Employment subgroup of the EU Disability Platform, where the implementation of the Disability Employment Package was discussed, focusing on implementation/follow-up by Member States. We informed the Secretariat of the Platform and the participants of the EBU efforts to give visibility to the deliverables, namely through circulating to our members and uploading to the Useful links section of our website. We recalled that, to accompany the Platform’s work, we had produced in September 2023 guidance on reasonable accommodation for visually impaired employees and applicants, also available on the AccessibleEU portal.
It was good to hear the Business Europe representative echo our call for putting an end to the ‘disability benefits trap’, whereby persons with disabilities (in some EU countries) lose their entitlement to disability benefits if they enter paid employment.
The meeting was also used by the Commission to present the Zero Project Call dedicated to employment and ICT in 2024, and to accessibility and ICT in 2025. EBU would be willing to present the nomination of a relevant project of one of its members in 2025, if there is expressed interest.
On 25 June, a Disability Platform’s plenary meeting took place, in which we were represented for the first time by the new Chairwoman of our Commission for Liaising with the EU, Francesca Sbianchi, from our Italian member UICI. Some highlights from this meeting:
- The EU Council, under Belgian Presidency, has pursued efforts to reach the necessary consensus for the adoption of the Equal Treatment Directive, but progress was made on various issues toward a reviewed and updated text, including clarifications. We asked the Hungarian representative whether the upcoming Hungarian Presidency will support the adoption of this directive: the answer was yes, but without details.
- The Hungarian Presidency of the EU – second semester of 2024 – will focus on access to employment as far as disability and inclusion is concerned. They will organise a conference on that topic on 9-10 October. An EPSCO Council meeting (Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs) will address the matter, with a view to adopting conclusions.
- About the monitoring, evaluation and review of the Disability Rights Strategy, we asked the European Commission to indicate whether it planned to address already under the current strategy the main gap of the future Disability Card/Disability Parking Card Directive, acknowledged in the text of the directive, i.e., that people moving their residence to another EU country fall between two systems during the often long process of having their disability status reassessed. The answer was: “We keep in mind a commitment in the directive to address this gap and we are already working on it”, but not necessarily as part of the Strategy, was our understanding. As for the directive it is expected to be formally adopted in the fall of 2024. Meanwhile, the Commission is working on delegated acts for its implementation, and the Disability Platform’s Employment subgroup (enlarged) will be consulted on these.
- About the action 21 in the Strategy – provide guidance to support Member States in reforms of social protection focusing on persons with disabilities – we asked the Commission’s DG REFORM representative whether the efforts to reform the disability assessment frameworks were targeted at facilitating the mutual recognition of disability status for persons with disabilities on the move in Europe. The answer was yes and “We would be glad to receive a project in this area. It would have to be proposed by a Member State, as a multi-State project.”
- And regarding actions 12 and 13 of the Strategy related to “inclusive and accessible education”, we intervened to stress the acknowledgement in the Strategy that access to mainstream quality education is key to participation in the open labour market, and that it is necessary to benchmark to measure progress in this area. The Commission’s DG EAC representative said that, yes, they are measuring progress in view of the 2025 report on the European Education Area. This report will propose adjustments, if necessary, for the second cycle (2026-2030).
- The EDF Human Rights Report 2025 will be on passenger rights, and we will surely want to provide input for it.
- Sweden, invited to tell about its experience of being under review by the UN CRPD committee, expressed discomfort: “The dialogue was challenging, with questions often difficult to understand, some misconceptions, and no time given for internal coordination to prepare replies. Also some questions were very political, too much so for neutral civil servants to answer.” Belgium and the Netherlands are next in line for review.
We continued to plan ahead for the EBU post-elections event at the European Parliament at the fall, namely by brainstorming on the modalities and branding of this event. Mark the date (to be confirmed) for the event: 12 November, in Brussels.