Briefing for Yannis Vardakastanis

Name of conference: Conference venue: People with disabilities: Active players in the Internal Market Charlemagne Conference Centre, Brussels, Room S3

You will speak at conference opening on 5th December 2007 from 10.15 to 10.45 Title of session: Lisbon Strategy and the Internal Market: Disability rights and perspectives Your time allocated: 15 minutes 1. The European Disability Forum is the voice of 50 million disabled people in the European Union. 2. 50 million disabled people that have seen in the last decades that the Internal Market is not delivering to them the same rights as others in society. 3. 50 millions of European citizens that want to travel, to work, to live, to buy, to enjoy all possibilities offered by the EU market. 4. All these millions of citizens are frustrated to see how few changes the legislation on the internal market has brought to them. 5. The European Union adopted at the Amsterdam Treaty the declaration 22 ensuring that the Internal Market development should take into account the rights of people with disabilities. The declaration 22 has been very good words but very little deeds. 6. The assessment today is that the European Union has failed to develop an inclusive internal market for all in Europe 7. Therefore EDF saw the internal market review as an opportunity to tackle this issue and to give content again to the declaration 22 of the Amsterdam treaty. 8. It was the moment to take courageous decisions, such as in the Structural Funds regulations and the air passenger rights, to recognise that discrimination and lack of accessibility are still creating social exclusion and obliging people with disabilities to be 2nd class citizens. 9. The disability movement cannot accept to be citizens without the same rights, 1.300.000 signatures have been collected to show to the European institutions that we cannot accept passivity on the European Commission to develop new legislation to prevent discrimination in all areas of life, including the internal market. 10. The European Commission has signed the UN convention on the rights of people with disabilities and will hopefully ratify it as soon as possible. 11. There is no possible ratification of the Convention if the European Union does not take concrete steps to revise the whole existing Internal Market regulation. 12. The Convention is clear on its general principles: accessibility, individual autonomy, freedom to make ones own choices, etc If Europe continues promoting barriers in services, in goods, in movement of disabled workers or students, etc. This is against the Convention. 13. The European Commission is therefore in front of a historical decision: Do we want an internal market for all people? or do we want just free movement of economic interests, forgetting citizens rights? 14. This is a decision that has to be taken also in the perspective of the forthcoming Lisbon Treaty which will put non discrimination as a horizontal principle. 15. EDF has to recognise also a positive development on the areas such as transport, employment or e-accessibility. We also acknowledge that in the current Commission communication Single market for 21st Century Europe there is a clear commitment to advance in the establishment of accessibility standards for consumers with disabilities. 16. But the current review of the single market is far bellow the expectations of the disability movement for a more inclusive Europe. 17. The European Commission maybe fears that there is no added value for taking a European action this field. Let me ask you some questions:

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a. Can the EU member states ensure that there are no barriers related to social security when a disabled person travels from one country to another? b. Can a disabled student enjoy the Erasmus programme with the same conditions of choice and opportunities as other fellow students? c. Can a disabled worker move in the same conditions as a non-disabled worker within European Union? d. Can the EU ensure that there are no free movement of inaccessible goods in Europe? e. Can the European Commission ensure that no big closed residential institutions (the worst example on quality of social services) are supported by the European Union? f. Can all services of general interest such as water or postal services ensure full access for people with disabilities? g. Can every disabled person in Europe have access to banking services, retail services or insurances as other consumers? 50 million disabled citizens are asking themselves these questions everyday! And the European Union and its member states should answer them. If any of the answers to the previous questions is no , then there is a reason for action at EU level. The European Commission will have other opportunities again to show new commitments with the European disability movement; (1) the decision to ratify the UN Convention and (2) the proposal for non-discrimination legislation for people with disabilities in all areas of life. It is important to express that the European disability movement expects a profound revision and not just small changes in the EU legislation and policies. A narrow analysis of the ratification process and/or the areas to protect discrimination would disappoint the disability movement. In order to be concrete, which areas should need further analysis: a. In the process: 1. A comprehensive strategy for mainstreaming disability in all single market regulations 2. a comprehensive review of the existing regulation in order to see if it has been outdated by the UN convention 3. To ensure impact assessments on disabled people alongside with gender and race 4. Structured consultation with civil society on content of proposals b. In the content: 1. Creation of legislation and guidelines at sectoral level to improve accessibility of goods and services. 2. The adoption of comprehensive legislation fighting discrimination on the ground of disability in all areas of EU competence 3. A disability pact with a concrete process of reforms. 4. Need of specific measures for people with disabilities included through the review of European legislation on specific sectors such as public procurement, insurance, banking services, transport, built environment, housing, marketing and product information, ICT, etc are still creating more barriers than inclusion for people with disabilities

23. We are confident that the European Commission is listening to the disability movement. Ms Walstrom, vice-president of the European Commission, ensured that the European Union will finally deliver to people with disabilities. This promised was made on 4th October 2007 in front of leaders coming all over Europe to claim for their rights. 24. We are confident that the European Commission and the rest of institutions will stick to their promises. 25. I would like to thank the European Commission for inviting EDF to cooperate in the preparation of this conference. This is a good example of cooperation on issues of common concern. 26. I wish a lot of success for the conference.