16 European Disability Strategy 2010-20
| (32213)
16489/10
COM(10) 636
+ ADDs 1-2
| Commission Communication: European Disability Strategy 2010-2020: A Renewed Commitment to a Barrier-Free Europe
Commission staff working documents: Accompanying document (ADD 1) and Initial implementation plan for 2010-15 (ADD 2)
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| Legal base | —
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| Document originated | 15 November 2010
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| Deposited in Parliament | 18 November 2010
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| Department | Work and Pensions
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 7 December 2010
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| To be discussed in Council | No date set
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
16.1 Disability did not feature in the EU Treaties until 1997
when the Amsterdam Treaty introduced a new Article providing for
EU action to combat discrimination on a number of grounds, including
disability.[69] The EU
has competence to adopt legislative measures to combat discrimination,
including on grounds of disability, but these must be agreed by
unanimity in the Council of Ministers after obtaining the consent
of the European Parliament. The EU may also adopt, by a qualified
majority, "incentive measures" which support action
taken by Member States without harmonising national laws.
16.2 Article 10 of the Treaty on the Functioning
of the European Union (TFEU) is a mainstreaming provision which
expressly requires the EU to seek to combat discrimination on
disability (and other) grounds when "defining and implementing
its policies and activities". Successive EU disability action
plans have emphasised the need to consider disability in the context
of other policy areas, notably transport, information and communications
technology, and implementation of the Structural Funds.
16.3 The EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights includes
provisions prohibiting discrimination on grounds of disability
(Article 21) and recognising the right of people with disabilities
to benefit from measures designed to ensure their independence,
social and occupational integration and participation in community
life (Article 26).
16.4 The EU Treaties do not define the term disability.
However, the EU has signed and is expected shortly to ratify the
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which
provides the following definition:
"Persons with disabilities include those who
have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments
which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full
and effective participation in society on an equal basis with
others" (Article 1)."
The Convention is a "mixed agreement" meaning
that it covers a broad range of issues, some of which fall within
the competence of Member States, some of which concern areas in
which the EU and Member States share competence, and some of which
fall within the EU's exclusive competence.[70]
Implementing the commitments contained in the Convention is therefore
a shared responsibility.
The Commission Communication
16.5 The purpose of the Communication is to define
a new EU Disability Strategy for 2010-20, following the expiry
of the EU's 2003-10 Disability Action Plan. The ten-year time
span complements the Europe 2020 Strategy for Jobs and Growth
which includes promoting social inclusion as one of its headline
targets. The Commission says that people with disabilities are
more likely to experience social exclusion because the incidence
of poverty and unemployment is significantly higher than average
and educational opportunities and rates of labour market participation
are lower. According to the Commission:
"Full economic and social participation of people
with disabilities is essential if the EU's Europe 2020 Strategy
is to succeed in creating smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.
Building a society that includes everyone also brings market opportunities
and fosters innovation. There is a strong business case for making
services and products accessible to all … Policy and regulatory
frameworks do not reflect the needs of people with disabilities
adequately, neither do product and service development. Many goods
and services, as well as much of the built environment, are still
not accessible enough."[71]
16.6 The principal focus of the Strategy is to eliminate
barriers which prevent people with disabilities from reaping the
social and economic benefits of the Single Market and exercising
their EU citizenship rights. The Strategy identifies eight main
areas for action, each accompanied by an overarching EU-level
objective. These are:
- Accessibility
— ensuring that people with disabilities have access to
goods and services, including public services, in their physical
environment and in key areas such as transport, information and
communication and related technologies;
- Participation —
ensuring full and equal participation in all aspects of economic
and social life, including through the exercise of EU citizenship
rights and access to cultural, recreational and other activities
and to good quality community-based care and services;
- Equality — combating
all forms of discrimination on grounds of disability;
- Employment —
improving employment opportunities;
- Education and training
— ensuring that the necessary support is available to facilitate
education and lifelong learning;
- Social protection
— ensuring decent living conditions through access to disability-related
assistance and social protection systems;
- Health — ensuring
equal access to health care and services; and
- External action —
promoting the rights of people with disabilities in the EU's external
action.
16.7 A Commission staff working document accompanying
the Communication (ADD 2) sets out well over a hundred "key
actions", some already underway, which are intended to implement
the first phase of the Strategy, up until 2015. Most of these
concern actions to be taken by the Commission, including within
EU institutions, but others seek to support or supplement action
taken at national level. Relatively few would require new legislation
at EU level. However, the Commission says that it will consider
the need for a "European Accessibility Act" which would
establish a general framework for accessibility to goods and services,
for example, by setting EU standards to make it easier to trade
across borders. Other ideas include:
- exploiting the EU's role in
standard-setting to develop EU standards on accessibility and
including these in the EU's rules on public procurement;
- promoting an EU-wide market for assistive devices,
such as wheelchairs and large-print keyboards, to stimulate competition
and reduce costs;
- establishing a European award for accessible
cities;
- considering the feasibility of mutual recognition
of disability cards and related entitlements;
- using EU Structural and Rural Development Funds
to support the independence of disabled people within the community
and to promote their labour market integration;
- promoting lifelong learning for disabled people
which fosters opportunities for employment or self-employment;
- developing active labour market policies and
making work places more accessible for people with disabilities,
with a view to increasing their rate of employment;
- targeting financial support from the European
Social Fund to concrete actions designed to reduce social exclusion;
- supporting inclusive and high quality education
and opportunities for mobility through the EU's Youth on the Move
initiative;
- developing guidance for employers and service
providers on the concept of "reasonable accommodation";
- promoting high quality and sustainable social
protection systems through policy exchange and mutual learning;
- promoting equal access to health care and the
provision of adequate rehabilitation services; and
- raising disability issues in dialogues with non-EU
countries and in international fora.
16.8 The Commission says that it will seek to underpin
all the actions proposed to implement the Strategy by raising
awareness of disability issues and the rights of people with disabilities;
by mandating the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency to collect and
analyse data on disability; and by ensuring optimum use of EU
funding mechanisms to promote accessibility and non-discrimination.
The Commission will also establish a monitoring framework to track
progress in implementing the UN Convention and propose a governance
framework setting out the responsibilities of various EU institutions
or bodies for its implementation.
The Government's view
16.9 The Minister for Disabled People at the Department
for Work and Pensions (Maria Miller) welcomes the Communication
which "is broadly aligned with the UK vision of achieving
equality for disabled people" and with the UN Convention.
She says that the UK ratified the Convention in July 2009 and
EU ratification is expected in December. She adds:
"Arrangements around the relationship of Member
State and EU responsibilities for the UN Convention, including
reporting, monitoring and representational arrangements have been
the subject of detailed negotiation with Member States and a Code
of Conduct has been agreed, which secured UK objectives. The UK
will continue to guard against any Commission pretensions to a
greater role in monitoring or implementation than the Code and
Member State responsibilities for implementation of, and the policy
areas covered by, the Convention allow."[72]
16.10 The Minister endorses the eight priority areas
identified in the Communication and indicates how they complement
existing UK policies. For example, she says that the Government
supports the Commission's proposals to promote the equal treatment
of disabled people through EU legislation and active policies
to combat discrimination and agrees that the Disability Strategy
should exploit the full potential of the Europe 2020 Strategy
by seeking to eliminate barriers to employment. The Government
also welcomes the focus on inclusive education and lifelong learning
and on ensuring good quality and sustainable social protection
systems for disabled people. She notes that better systems for
collecting and analysing data will make it easier to identify
the incidence of disability hate crime.
16.11 The Minister also makes clear that the detailed
actions proposed to implement the Disability Strategy will be
subject to further discussion and agreement with Member States
and will be carefully considered by the Government for their compliance
with the principle of subsidiarity. She adds:
"As is to be expected given the diversity of
approaches and different starting points of Member States, some
like the UK have taken steps to actively integrate disability
issues into policies development and delivery but others have
not. In some Member States therefore significant work may still
be required to achieve effective and strategic mainstreaming of
disability issues in national policy development. Since 2008,
the EU Disability High Level Group has identified potential areas
for cooperation to reinforce the current EU Disability Action
Plan, and achieve full compliance with the substantive provisions
of the UN Convention. The Strategy has an expectation of co-operation
between Member States and between Member States and the EU which
may add value where, for example, best practice can be shared.
But the UK will resist any activity which is burdensome, and as
indicated above, legislative proposals will be considered against
the subsidiarity principle."[73]
Conclusion
16.12 We note that the Disability Strategy is
intended to support efforts at EU and national level to implement
the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,
with the focus of EU action being to remove barriers which prevent
people with disabilities from reaping the social and economic
benefits of the Single Market and to secure the full enjoyment
of EU citizenship rights. We welcome the link made to the EU's
Europe 2020 Strategy and to policies contained therein to promote
social inclusion and better educational and employment opportunities.
16.13 The Strategy and accompanying Commission
working documents demonstrate that much needs to be done to improve
the social and economic situation of people with disabilities
and that progress can only be made by mobilising Member States
and other actors. We note that the EU has limited competence in
some of the priority areas for action identified in the Strategy
— for example, health, education and social protection —
making it difficult to discern in some cases where the boundary
between EU and national action lies. While welcoming the Strategy,
we also agree with the Minister that specific proposals to implement
it which require action at EU level should be carefully examined
to ensure that they do not exceed the powers conferred on the
EU by the Treaties and that they comply with the subsidiarity
principle. Meanwhile, we are content to clear the Communication
from scrutiny.
69 Formerly Article 13 of the EC Treaty, now to be
found in Article 19 TFEU. Back
70
The division of competences is set out in Annex II of Council
Decision 2010/48/EC which authorises the EU to accede to the UN
Convention. See also HC 19-i (2008-09), chapter 10 (10 December
2008) and HC 19-xxxi (2008-09), chapter 5 (11 November 2009). Back
71
See page 4 of the Communication. Back
72
See paragraphs 21 and 22 of the Minister's Explanatory Memorandum.
Back
73
See paragraph 20 of the Minister's Explanatory Memorandum. Back
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