After a provisional agreement was reached between the European Parliament and the EU Council negotiators on the proposed Directive establishing a European Disability Card and European Parking Card for persons with disabilities, we sent an assessment of this result to our membership and invited questions. A provisional agreement was also reached on the parallel proposal, to extend the rules to third country nationals. We issued a press release to welcome a landmark development, urging the legislator to formally adopt the new legislation as a package before the European elections of June – something which we have learned risks not happening due to a backlog in translations.
We participated in the EU Disability Platform Plenary of 18 March. Noteworthy is the following:
- It was good news to hear from the Belgian Presidency of the EU that the Equal Treatment Directive proposal is still being considered, after 16 years, even if “the text is likely to change a lot”. An eventual briefing to disabled peoples organisations on the state of play was asked for.
- Many deliverables of the Disability Employment Package are ready or being finalised – see further below.
- It is acknowledged that the impact of artificial intelligence on assistive technologies needs to be more ambitiously addressed in the EU Disability Rights Strategy.
We also participated in the Belgian Presidency of the EU conference of 19 March, in the framework of the EU Disability Platform, “Towards full inclusion of persons with disabilities – the European Pillar of Social Rights and beyond”. Some highlights:
- About the European Disability Card initiative, it was interesting to hear some Member States recognise the interest of having some EU-level unified principles for the assessment of disability; and the Commission warn about the importance of controlling the implementation and interpretation of the future directive. We brought our message about the missed opportunity to address the gap in transition when moving one’s residence to another Member State, and it was nice to hear it echoed by the European Trade Union Confederation. We asked the Commission to address this important remaining gap for the equal treatment in the EU mobility of persons with disabilities.
- Regarding employment, a representative of the EPSCO Council welcomed the new Disability Employment Gap indicator as a factor of new prominence of this matter in their work, while pointing at persistent inconsistencies in data on employment at EU level. For our part, we ask for data to be further disaggregated by type of disability, to reflect the specific situation of visually impaired people. To-date, the available data distinguishing by type of functional limitation is essentially just to quantify the respective types of limitations and their seriousness, whereas disability is generally treated as a whole when considering the different aspects of life.
- About the European Accessibility Act, we pointed out that it leaves out many products and services, especially in the real world, such as urban transport, household appliances, the labelling of food products, and the built environment – all aspects that matter a lot in the daily lives of BPS people. Importantly, the Commission clarified that, for the EU to address accessibility through legislation, there needs to be evidence of barriers/ distortions in the EU single market due to the absence of harmonisation in this area.
- Concerning the rest of the Disability Strategy 2021-2030, EDF called for action that makes a difference for persons with disabilities, e.g., a Disability Employment and Skills Guarantee, as new flagship initiative. The Commission, for its part, flagged 2025 as a key year to link policies and reforms to funding, due to the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework.
We attended the European Commission DG Employment and Social Affairs Civil Society Seminar on the priorities for the European Semester (12 March). Our key message there was to use this framework to push EU the concerned Member States to drop the so-called “disability benefits trap”, i.e., the loss of such benefits in case of paid employment. This was also repeated at the Belgian Presidency conference mentioned above.
We also attended the European Economic and Social Committee’s Civil Society Week - panel "Towards a Digital Transformation that leaves no one behind" (6 March) and its Permanent Group on disability Rights public hearing on "Potential and challenges of Assistive Technology and AI on the life of persons with disabilities" (14 March), to bring the perspective of visually impaired persons.
An agreement was found on the Artificial Intelligence Act. The text includes important accessibility requirements for persons with disabilities, but falls short of fully protecting fundamental rights. See the European Disability Forum’s analysis.
Following the circulation of the EBU recommendations for accessible payment terminals, we met with two industry representatives: the European Payments Council and with Payments Europe. The latter meeting was more useful and will lead to continued liaison. We also received useful feedback from the European Commission’s service in charge of payment systems and services.
On 5 March, the European Court of Justice delivered an important ruling about standardisation, to say that there is an overriding public interest justifying the free disclosure to the concerned NGOs of the requested harmonised standards. ANEC, the consumer voice in European standardisation commented as follows: “While it is too soon to envisage what the practical consequences will be, we can already welcome the ECJ ruling which is stressing, again, that harmonised standards form part of EU law and thus that, according to the principles of the rule of law, transparency, openness and good governance, there is a right to access to harmonised standards, in line with ANEC’s position.”
We alerted a European Parliament rapporteur on the Directive on pharmaceutical products, about labelling, to the importance of ensuring that the QR code is easily accessible and detectable for blind consumers.
We attended a joint BEUC (European consumer organisations) and AGE (the voice of elderly people in Europe) on the future digital euro, and we liaised with them, in follow-up, with two experts respectively from Estonia and Spain, on accessibility issues.
We provided input for an EDF training session on accessible tourism, with the help of our German and Italian members.
We take this opportunity to inform our membership of the progress so far on deliverables, under the EU Disability Rights Strategy 2021-2030, for the Disability Employment Package:
- Practitioner toolkit on strengthening Public Employment Services (PES) to improve the labour market outcomes of persons with disabilities
- Catalogue of positive actions to encourage the hiring of persons with disabilities and combating stereotypes
- CEDEFOP briefing note on lifelong guidance for persons with disabilities, to improve education, training and labour market outcomes for persons with disabilities
EBU has also actively contributed, within the European Disability Platform’s subgroup Employment, to the Commission’s guide on reasonable accommodation at work (upcoming).
Also part of the Strategy, on the front of political participation, is the Commission’s Guide of good electoral practices in Member States addressing the participation of citizens with disabilities in the electoral process – now available here – which well incorporates the recommendations from our Accessible Voting Awareness-raising project report.