The Directive establishing a European Disability Card and a European Parking Card for persons with disabilities, adopted on 14 October, has now been published on 11 November in the OJEU, meaning its entry into force on 4 December. By 5 June 2027, Member States must adopt and publish the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the directive, and they must apply them from 5 June 2028. We learned that the Commission is currently in discussion, not only with non-EU EEA countries (as is normal) but also with Switzerland for the extension of the geographical scope of the directive.
On 6 November, the Commissioner-designate for Crisis Preparedness and Crisis Management, and Equality, Hadja Lahbib (Belgium) was heard by the European Parliament. In her opening statement, she stressed that the connection between her two portfolios is crucial, as equality must be mainstreamed into humanitarian policies because vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities are often the first to be affected in disaster situations. She also assured that her focus on equality will not be diminished by having a second portfolio, but that she intends to work to make equality a cross-cutting priority for all Commissioners. She pledged to update the Disability Rights Strategy. In her replies to questions from MEPs, noteworthy is that her key priority in the updated strategy will be the employment of people with disabilities. Other priorities include de-institutionalisation and better social support for persons with disabilities, and strengthening equality bodies to amplify their voice.
Eventually the European Parliament for the first time in 20 years approved all candidate commissioners and endorsed the new Commission. It will take office on 1st December.
As far as consultations are concerned:
- We forwarded to our member organisations a European Commission survey on assistive technologies in the EU Member States.
- We met with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and DG ENVI, to discuss solutions to make waste sorting labelling accessible for visually impaired people and, as in follow-up, we are currently responding to a consultation document.
- We were invited to take and replied to a survey in the context of the Commission’s mid-term review of the EU Road Safety Framework assessment.
- We were contacted for a consultation meeting on the revision of Lifts Directive, in connection with the European standardisation process and standard EN 81-70 on the Accessibility to Lifts. This meeting is to take place in early December.
We continued to liaise with EDF for their alternative report in the context of the CRPD review of EU. Our remarks were largely taken on board.
In liaison with ANEC, we urged our member organisations to lobby their national standardisation bodies, more specifically the mirror committee to CEN/TC 293, to request the approval as a final standard of FprEN 17999: “Accessible systems for living independently - Requirements and recommendations” , ahead of the vote in mid-January; also to support extending the title and scope of Working Group 13, currently dealing with tactile lettering, to also cover smart mobility.
The EBU networking event at the European Parliament about our demands for the new EU legislature was postponed to 18 February 2025 (pending confirmation from the Parliament services that a venue is available for this).
Following the EBU Advocacy Committee’s decision, in October, to prepare a campaign on the accessibility of household appliances, we drafted a very first concept note for the campaign.
On 5 November, we attended the annual conference of the EU Network of Public Employment Services, “Rethinking support for those furthest from the labour market”. There was consensus there on the need for jobseeker-centred multilateral cooperation between all actors, including the organisations representing persons with disabilities, beyond the recruitment phase. In the workshop on “Evidence-based services”, however, we regretted a marked focus on cost-efficiency approach, i.e., taking people out of disability benefits, instead of addressing their specific barriers and needs. We underlined that disability benefits reflect the extra cost of living for persons with disabilities and should not be tied to being unemployed, as is unfortunately the case in some EU countries.
On 28 and 29 November, we attended the annual European Day of Persons with Disabilities conference, with particular interest in Panel 1: “The Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – Making the second phase a success”. Panel 2 was on “The right to independent living”. The conference, as usual, also included the Access City Award ceremony. More information about this in the December 2024 Member’s Newsletter.