Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-17-Speech-1-040"
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for giving me this opportunity to report to you on what has been achieved during the European Year of People with Disabilities and how it is to be followed up, given that it is only six weeks until the end of the year.
As far as the first issue of the application of the directive is concerned, ladies and gentlemen, I would remind you that, in the year 2000, an anti-discrimination directive was adopted in record time, which was unprecedented in the European Union, but of course we have to say that its promotion by the Member States did not proceed at the rate we expected. Today, a large number of countries have still not adopted the draft directive on equal treatment for people subject to discrimination. The deadline expires at the end of December and, basically, only two countries have adopted the directive. However, we have to go beyond adoption to implementation, where important changes will be needed to the rules which apply today in certain Member States. This will have an impact on employers, in both the public and private sectors, and on the working practices applied to people with disabilities, because the directive, which concerns reasonable adaptations, will have to be applied to the letter. In other words, the workplace will have to be adapted to the needs of people with disabilities. The Commission will perform its duty in full as guardian of the Treaty, as regards the adoption of the directive at the correct moment in time, its proper transposition – not in the wrong way and not without there being specific references to the European text – and of course its implementation.
The communication, as I said earlier, also focussed on the issue of horizontal policies relating to people with disabilities, in other words incorporation into all individual policies. We already have examples at European level, with an important step in the field of transport and in the field of electronic communications, for which Commissioners de Palacio and Liikanen are responsible. The incorporation of these issues into all the relevant policies must focus mainly on access issues, access to goods, services and buildings, and must be linked to the principle of 'design for all' expressed in the Commission communication which immediately preceded this communication.
The communication introduces a multiannual, rolling action plan. The first priority is employment, which is also the most important factor for the social integration of people with disabilities. I would say that our philosophy is essentially encapsulated in the slogan that people with disabilities must have the right to work and not to benefits. Consequently, the first stage in the application of the action plan, which is to be developed between 2004 and 2005, will concentrate on putting the necessary conditions in place for promoting the employment of people with disabilities. Today we calculate that there are 3 million people with disabilities in Europe who could be integrated into the labour market. There is an even bigger number who, with special policies, with investment in these people and with skills which matched their capabilities, could be integrated into the labour market.
Our policy for the workplace will focus on four priorities: access to and staying in employment, lifelong learning, new technologies – which we consider to be one of the most crucial elements – because, with innovation and research, a series of new tools really can give people with all sorts of disabilities the power to deal with their disabilities. At the same time, however, these tools must be cheap and accessible to everyone. Today, the European market is extremely difficult for these people. Every country has its own specifications to a large degree, each social system is linked to its own undertakings. This results in the same tools being cheap in one country and expensive in another. Hence, this field of new technologies and access for people with disabilities to the technologies in question at European level is one of the challenges and, finally, the fourth priority is access to public buildings.
As one way of supporting the successful incorporation of these issues in policies, the Commission is proposing the publication of a biennial report on developments in each Member State, focussing each time on planning and new choices of priorities. We think that this report, the first of which will be published in 2005, will be an important tool for exerting pressure on the Member States, who will have to announce developments at institutional level and at implementation level, which we shall publish every two years.
Finally, the Commission is proposing to further strengthen the contribution of all the interested parties and of the basic protagonists in the policy-making dialogue, so that we have major and permanent changes in the economy and society as a whole.
I should like to express my satisfaction about the facility being given to carry out a study, as called for by Parliament, on the situation of people with disabilities living in institutions, who make up another large category of our fellow citizens, with special problems of another sort. Of course, this type of problem has a very large dimension in the candidate countries.
Mr President, the expectations of the Year were great. I believe that we have significant results, especially if we think – as I stressed in my introduction – that these policies are, to a large extent, almost purely national policies. I believe, however, that with all this activation during the Year in 2003, the issue of people with disabilities became a top priority on the political agenda both of the Member States and of the European Union itself. Most importantly, however, it brought the policy of the Disabled People's Movement itself to the forefront, by putting into practice the slogan 'Nothing about us without us', meaning they must be involved at all planning and decision-making levels.
We must bear in mind that policies relating to people with disabilities are national policies. What we were trying to do in 2003 was to find all the methods, tools and gateways which we can use to give European added value to national policies.
So far, the Year has achieved significant results to do with raising awareness about the rights of people with disabilities. We have had thousands of events in all the Member States at national, regional and local level, debates in parliament, fora and exchanges of best practices between the Member States, while of course the non-governmental organisations and the Disabled People's Movement have also made a real contribution to an explosion of events and to passing on the message about the rights of people with disabilities.
The European Parliament supported the Year without reservation right from the start. On 3 November 2003, the first reading about lifelong learning facilities was organised with young people with disabilities and a few days ago, on 10 and 11 November, the European Parliament of People with Disabilities sat and passed a resolution on the subject.
Of course, we should emphasise that the Year marks the start of a European procedure and that all the efforts and planning do not come to an end at the end of the year. It is especially important that we use the momentum created and we must say that today, in every country, initiatives and innovative action are being taken, which was not the case in the past, and we also have important, exceptionally advanced legislation in certain countries.
On 30 October, the Commission issued a communication about the follow-up needed to this Year. There are three basic objectives:
The first is to achieve the adoption and full application of the directive on equal treatment of the disabled in employment and at work.
The second is the successful incorporation of issues relating to people with disabilities in all policies. This relates to our agreement on mainstreaming, so that this policy is not just a matter for the ministries of social affairs or the ministries of health or the ministries of employment, but is a horizontal policy which concerns all the ministries in each country and all portfolios at the Commission.
The third is improving access for all people with disabilities."@en1
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