Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-23-Speech-4-431"
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"en.20090423.67.4-431"2
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".
Minister, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today when we are discussing the European Parliament’s reports on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, its Optional Protocol and the statement on these two documents from the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, I would like to remind you that disabled people account for more than 10% of the population of the European Union and the world. According to data from the World Health Organization, this percentage is still growing due to the increase in the overall size of the Earth’s population, the advances made in medicine and the global ageing trend.
This UN Convention which we are looking at today is the first in the area of human rights which is open to accession and formal approval by the European Community. This also marks a unique first step in the activities of the European Parliament. The Convention’s objective is to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, while at the same time respecting their human dignity.
I am extremely pleased that during the discussion in the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, we worked together in a spirit of goodwill and cooperation. I think that it is very important that my colleagues and I in our parliamentary committee decided to say a little bit more than a brief ‘yes’ in support of the Convention and Protocol reports and prepared a proposal for a resolution.
Fellow Members, the European Parliament has always consistently supported every effort made by the Community in drafting, implementing and enforcing legislation relating to equal opportunities and non-discrimination against people with disabilities. When the issue of disabled people is raised, our political differences disappear when it comes to the ultimate aim, namely, for us to ensure a higher quality of life and work. There are, of course, different views about the way in which we can achieve our objective, but with its almost unanimous decision – only one vote was not a ‘yes’ – the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs proved that differences must be overcome about the way to achieve sensible, long-term and sustainable solutions.
Fellow Members, I believe that our decisions, the decisions of the European Parliament, are of huge significance to people with disabilities in the European Union. At this point, I would like draw your attention to the fact that the competencies which stem from the implementation of the UN Convention and the Optional Protocol are divided between the Community and its Member States. The implementation of the Optional Protocol is important from the point of view of offering the opportunity to individuals or a group of people to inform the UN Committee for people with disabilities about any infringement of their rights arising from the Convention. It is important to emphasise that this option will be available after national legal protection instruments have been exhausted.
As expressed in the Optional Protocol report, we will require the European Commission and Member States to inform us every three years about its application in accordance with their relevant areas of competence. I think that, as the only European institution with members elected directly by the EU’s citizens, the European Parliament has the right and main responsibility for respecting the rights of all its citizens.
I want to emphasise that when we started working on the documents at the end of 2008, only four Member States – Austria, Spain, Slovenia and Hungary – had ratified the Convention and Optional Protocol, while another three have done the same – Sweden, Germany and Italy – between then and now.
I believe that with today’s debate and I hope with our vote in favour tomorrow, we will kill two birds with one stone: we will approve the Commission’s proposals for Council decisions and we will give Member States a positive, encouraging signal to continue the process of ratification and/or accession.
I would like to end by once again thanking all my colleagues who were involved in the task of drafting the reports and the proposal for a resolution. I would also like to thank my colleagues from the European Commission for their helpful cooperation, as well as the representatives of organisations for people with disabilities for the suggestions which they made."@en1
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