Main developments:
Hadja Lahbib (Belgium), confirmed as Commissioner for Equality and for Preparedness and Crisis
Management in the new European Commission had Equality brought first in her title. This surely is a result of the European Parliament hearings and the civil society organisations’ expressed concerns about a watering down of the Equality portfolio.
In a debate at the European Parliament on 19 December, where MEPs particularly focused on employment, accessibility and independent living, Commissioner Lahbib confirmed that the EU Disability Rights Strategy will be updated with strong actions. She said: “During the first year of my mandate, I intend to communicate to the European Parliament and to the Council the new actions and flagship initiatives that will help to close the remaining gaps”. She also mentioned that the UN review of the EU’s implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will guide her actions.
Other good news to end the year is that the European Parliament officially re-established its Disability Intergroup, continuing its legacy as one of the oldest and most active intergroups in the European Parliament’s history. The involvement of some EBU members toward this result was remarkable. So far the intergroup includes some 60 members. The list, by country, can be found on the EDF website.
Regarding the adoption in October of Directive establishing a European Disability Card and a European Parking Card for persons with disabilities, we should point out that also adopted on that occasion was the parallel Directive extending the provisions to third country nationals legally resident in the EU. We enquired with the European Commission about the bilateral discussions started with Switzerland, to learn that these were initiated by the Commission, based on the analysis that the Directive falls within the scope of the EU-Switzerland Agreement. We invited our Swiss member to lobby their government in that context, if they wish to have their country participate in the directive.
Georgia joined the Marrakesh Treaty, leaving only 7 countries of the European region to still have to do so: Andorra, Holy See, Kazakhstan, Monaco, North Macedonia, Turkey, and Ukraine. However, in all but two of these remaining countries (Andorra and Monaco), libraries can in practice already use Marrakesh Treaty rights, without having to pay compensation to rights-holders.
Consultations:
- Following up on a meeting with them in November, building on the feedback received from our members, we responded with a free-text document to a targeted consultation by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre for DG ENVI, on their proposed solution to make waste sorting labelling accessible.
- We met with a consultant for the European Commission about the review of the EU Lifts Directive. This provided a good opportunity to summarise our long-standing issues about the gaps of the directive as well as about the defaults of the process around the European standard EN 81-70 on the Accessibility to Lifts.
- We met with Visa, on their request, to explore the possibility of testing of a pilot project smartphone-based payment system designed to be accessible for visually impaired users. That was another opportunity to promote our recommendations for accessible payment terminals.
Lobbying:
We continued to liaise with EDF for their alternative report in the context of the CRPD review of EU, to fine-tune the part regarding the Marrakesh Treaty implementation.
The lobbying at national level, in liaison with ANEC, to extend the title and scope of Working Group 13 (tactile lettering) in European standardisation to also cover smart mobility so as to allow a new work item on this, was successful: 11 countries voted in favour, 12 abstained, no vote against. Here the list of countries who voted in favour: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland.
We contributed ideas to EDF, acting as designated coordinator by the European Commission, for topics to be addressed in the three European Disability Platform plenary meetings in 2025.
Letters:
We wrote to Commissioner Lahbib to request a meeting with her, to introduce EBU and present our key concerns for the new legislature. We signed a open joint letter of many disability organisations asking her to ““keep up the momentum on disability rights!”.
Campaigning:
The EBU networking event at the European Parliament about our demands for the new EU legislature is now confirmed: 18 February it is. Our invitations were sent to a selection of around 190 MEPs in key committees or positions. Our members in the EU to send representatives. The European Commission and EDF were also invited to send representatives.
Events:
We refer to the separate article about our attending the annual European Day of Persons with Disabilities conference and Access City Award ceremony on 28 and 29 November.