The European disability movement launched the EDF Manifesto on the European Elections 2024: “Building an inclusive future for persons with disabilities in the EU” in 2023. The Manifesto testifies the need for strong, concrete actions until 2030 to ensure equality for persons with disabilities. It is our guide to demand new actions and initiatives for the second phase of the EU Strategy on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030.

The strategy is divided into eight chapters that cover different areas where the EU aims to improve the lives of persons with disabilities, the last three of which focus on how to deliver the strategy in practice and measure its impact. These are:

1. Accessibility – an enabler of rights, autonomy and equality
2. Enjoying EU Rights
3. Decent quality of life and living independently
4. Equal Access and non-discrimination
5. Promoting the rights of persons with disabilities globally
6. Efficiently delivering the strategy
7. Leading by example
8. Awareness, governance and measuring progress

The strategy also identifies “flagship initiatives”: initiatives such as laws or the creations of permanent bodies that will have a stronger long-term impact.

We propose 8 new flagship initiatives to implement until 2030. They follow the order of the chapters of the Strategy.

Flagship 1: European Agency for Accessibility

Establish a new decentralised regulatory European agency for accessibility, based on and building upon the work of the AccessibleEU centre, to support the implementation of all EU harmonised accessibility legislation and continue advancing towards a more accessible Europe. The agency could take inspiration from the US Access Board, and other relevant national agencies. 

The responsibilities of the agency can include:

• To provide EU institutions, policymakers, and Member States with specialised information on accessibility;
• To provide policy recommendations based on scientific evidence and input from the most affected groups, such as persons with disabilities and older people;
• To adopt accessibility technical specifications (i.e. standards) in support of specific EU policies and legislation, and in consultation with rights holders and stakeholders;

The tasks of such an agency could include:

• Training: provide training for professionals in different domains, EU and national public officials and the disability community;
• Coordination with other EU agencies, such as the Body of European Regulators on Electronic Communications (BEREC) or the European Rail Agency;
• Coordination and support to enforcement and redress mechanisms: at national level (e.g. Market Surveillance Authorities responsible for the Accessibility Act) and EU level (e.g. assisting the EU Ombudsman on enquiries related to accessibility);
• Research: conduct studies/projects looking into innovative ways to implement accessibility;
• Collaboration at a global level: with other similar bodies (e.g. UN CRPD committee, US Access Board; W3C-Web Accessibility Initiative, etc.).

The Agency should ensure the involvement of persons with disabilities in all of its activities and should include representative organisations of persons with disabilities in its governing structures.

Flagship 2: Legislation on the affordability of assistive technology

Introduce legislation to guarantee the availability and affordability of assistive technologies for persons with disabilities in the EU single market.

Such legislation should tackle the situation of certain national certification schemes preventing persons with disabilities from accessing the most suitable piece of assistive technology for them (see EDF paper on assistive technologies). This legislation should:

• Ensure that Assistive Technologies (AT) economic operators and users fully take advantage of the EU internal single market and benefit from the free movement of products and services. This means setting up a joint mechanism for the mutual certification of relevant AT across countries.
• Guarantee that Member States facilitate accessible information on available AT and measures ensuring their affordability.
• Establish independent centres at national level to support in the selection of AT, taking into account the experience and expectations of the users, as well as the context of use of the AT. Such centres should have a person-centred approach towards the selection, use and maintenance of AT.
• Introduce further flexibility, ease and speed within the national AT delivery models.
• Encourage research on innovative assistive solutions taking advantage of emerging technologies.
• Guarantee the participation of organisations of persons with disabilities so AT are developed, deployed and funded with full consideration of users’ needs and experiences.

Flagship 3: Directive for full freedom of movement of persons with disabilities

Introduce a Directive on the shared responsibility of Member States for disability support towards EU citizens moving from one Member State to another for the long term.

The final approach of this Directive still needs to be further discussed in order to find the best solution, but we would strongly advise that the law allows persons with disabilities to retain coverage from one’s Member State of origin through “portability” of one’s benefits until the moment that the citizen has established residence in a new Member State and has undergone the new disability assessment procedure.

As well as an agreement on a person’s Member State of origin continuing to fund their support until they have been assessed and recognised as a person with disabilities in their new Member State of residence, there must also be a mechanism, supported with EU funds, to offset any differences in disability allowances and personal budgets between Member States, and to ensure that whatever a person receives in financial support is adequate and proportionate to the cost of living wherever they are based.

Finally, the Directive should also put further responsibilities on the new Member State of residence not to allow undue delays in the reassessment of a person’s disability. A decision on their status and the recognition of their disability status in the system of the new country of residence should be made within a reasonable timeframe and give them access as soon as possible to the services that are available to them there.

Flagship 4: Disability Employment and Skills Guarantee

Establish a Disability Employment and Skills Guarantee, inspired by the successful Youth Guarantee, to provide funding and support to ensure that persons with disabilities have equal access to mainstream education, training and employment opportunities, including self-employment and entrepreneurship. The Guarantee should also offer support in making every training and skills-development programme fully inclusive and accessible.

In order to meet the needs of persons with disabilities, the Disability Employment and Skills Guarantee would need to have some considerable differences with the Youth Guarantee. Notably:

• It should be open to people who are receiving disability allowance and allow them to retain this allowance when in work, training or education. Being the recipient of disability allowance should not result in the person in question not being considered to be a NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) as is currently the case for the Youth Guarantee;
• The age restriction should of course be lifted, as barriers to the open labour market for persons with disabilities are often experienced throughout a person’s entire life;
• Extra resources should be on offer, from the funding attached to the Disability Employment Guarantee, to assist in providing reasonable accommodations for the person at work (since in most EU Member States’ reimbursement of costs for reasonable accommodation to employers are dependent on the employee having a permanent contract).
• The Guarantee would need to very carefully clarify which types of work settings people can be supported into as part of the scheme. Excluded from the scope of the Guarantee should be sheltered workshops exclusively for persons with disabilities where workers do not have the legal status of employee and are not paid in line with national, regional or sectoral minimum wage requirements. Emphasis should be on placements in the open labour market, or in social enterprises that support people into mainstream forms of employment, focusing on transition.
• For participants taking part in education or training in particular, the Guarantee should ensure access to certification that can attest the skills acquired by participants with disabilities.

In its next Multiannual Financial Framework the EU should increase the budget going towards actions supporting social inclusion, to ensure that inclusion of new social initiatives such as this would not dilute spending elsewhere

Flagship 5: EU Package on de-institutionalisation

The package should build on the success of the EU Guidance on Independent Living and Inclusion in the Community for Persons with Disabilities. It should have a particular focus on incentivising Member States to reduce the number of persons with disabilities in institutions and to hold them accountable for their failure to do so in line with the UNCRPD. As has been highlighted in a recent report by Eurofound, overall the number of persons with disabilities in institutions has increased over the past 10 years, noticeably in 13 Member States.

The actions in the package could include:

Regular data-collection and monitoring to measure de-institutionalisation in the Member States

Eurostat, together with the national statistics offices, should collect disaggregated data annually on persons with disabilities in institutions.

With the release of annual data, Eurostat, together with the Disability Unit in DG Justice, should disseminate information on:

• Member States with the highest proportion of persons with disabilities living in institutions
• Member States seeing the greatest rises and decreases in persons with disabilities living in institutions since the previous year
• Member States seeing the greatest rises and decreases in persons with disabilities living in institutions over the past 5 years
• The impact of gender and level of support needs on institutionalisation of persons with disabilities.

These should be shared annually, around the European Days of Persons with Disabilities, to spread awareness of Member States’ progress in facilitating the transition away from institutions.

Council Decision on deinstitutionalisation

The Commission should propose and the Council should adopt a Council Decision on deinstitutionalisation, in the same way it has done on guidelines for employment policies.

Make de-institutionalisation central to the European Semester and delivery of EU fund

Data on persons with disabilities in institutions, the progress being made, and the way to go to reach the target mentioned above, should be systematically included in the Country Reports of the European Semester, and reflected in the Country-Specific Recommendations.

Promote use of Technical Support Instrument for de-institutionalisation and setting up direct payment systems

Engage with the Member States to encourage them to make use of the EU’s Technical Support Instrument for planning the transition away from institutional care. This should combine technical support on:

• Good practices for providing community-based support and personal assistance to people leaving institutions
• How to inform residents of institutions about their options in the community and accompany them in this transition
• How to budget for the cost of de-institutionalisation, when new forms of community support temporarily exist in parallel with institutions that have not yet been closed
• How to set up direct payment schemes and personal budget mechanisms for persons with disabilities to be able to choose and control the type of support they receive
• How to train and attract people to work in the sector to provide community-based support to persons with disabilities.

Flagship 6: Set rules on accessibility for all EU funding going towards housing

Following the launch of the European Affordable Housing Plan in December 2025, in which the focus on accessibility is sadly absent, we urge the EU institutions and the Member States to set clear rules on accessibility for all EU funding going towards housing.

The key sources of funding for housing are likely to be the National and Regional Partnership Plans that Member States must draw up for EU funding between 2028 and 2034, and the use of funding channelled through the Pan-European Investment Platform for Affordable and Sustainable housing, created as part of the European Affordable Housing Plan.

This is key to ensuring that affordable housing does not exclude persons with disabilities or older people, who are already cut off from the vast majority of existing housing stock because of a lack of accessibility.  

It should be recalled that the inaccessibility of housing is a key reason for people having to leave their home against their will. Accessible housing is in desperately short supply in Europe and typically imposes far greater costs on tenants and buyers due to its rarity.

Flagship 7: Strong actions to end forced sterilisation

EDF calls for the adoption of a series of strong actions to end forced sterilisation, which would include:

• Criminalisation: a ban of forced sterilisation in EU law;
• An action plan to end forced sterilisation, including public apology, rehabilitation, reparation (including economic reparation), and a guarantee of non-repetition.

After the adoption of the Directive on Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence which failed to include the criminalisation of forced sterilisation, the European Disability Forum renews its call for EU to urge Member States to:

• Criminalise forced sterilisation with no exception based on disability or legal capacity;
• Enforce measures at EU and Member State levels to prevent forced sterilisation, ensure equal access to sexual and reproductive rights, and ensure access to justice, including reporting, as well as adequate criminal sanctions, and compensation for victims;
• Encourage all EU Member States to ratify the Istanbul Convention on combating violence against women.

Flagship 8: Disability Action Plan in EU External Action 

Adopt a Disability Action Plan in EU External Action, similar to the Youth Action Plan in External Action, to ensure disability inclusion.

A Disability Action Plan could offer a critical framework for European institutions, including EU Delegations and Member States, to adopt a more disability-inclusive approach in their external action activities, encompassing both international cooperation and humanitarian efforts.

The Action Plan should cover five main thematic areas:

1. Respecting and mainstreaming the rights of persons with disabilities
2. Ensuring funding mechanisms and clear monitoring
3. Ensuring full and effective participation and accessibility
4. Developing and implementing fully inclusive policy and programmes
5. Strengthening internal and external disability-inclusive cooperation, coordination and partnership

The outcomes of such a plan would ensure that the rights of persons with disabilities are fully respected and systematically integrated into all EU external action policies and programmes. All EU-funded initiatives for external action would adhere to the principles of the CRPD. Persons with disabilities and their representative organisations would meaningfully participate in all EU external action decision-making processes on an equal basis with others. Their full and measurable inclusion would be guaranteed in all policies, guidance, and implementation of EU external action activities.

Finally, EU institutions, Member States, and partners would collaborate in a consistent and coordinated manner toward disability inclusion, fostering internal synergy in alignment with international standards and frameworks. Ultimately, the EU would position itself as a global leader in disability-inclusive external actions

In addition to the Flagship initiatives, we suggest several other actions to realise the rights of persons with disabilities.

Actions for “Chapter 1” of the Strategy: Accessibility – an enabler of rights, autonomy and equality 

• Ensure fair an equal air travel through an in-depth revision of Regulation 1107/2006 on the rights of disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility when travelling by air.
• Revise existing EU legislation or develop new legislation on the accessibility of transport infrastructure and vehicles, such as trains, buses, planes and boats.
• Develop EU accessibility guidelines for urban public transport systems;
• Initiative on the mutual recognition of assistance dogs;
• Revise of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) to expand accessibility provision.
• Revise the European Standardisation System to guarantee a fair, accountable, transparent, and inclusive system to develop harmonised European standards
• Creation of European standards on access services to audiovisual content.
• Introduce legal requirements on accessible labelling to ensure that consumers with disabilities can enjoy increased autonomy and be fully informed of the contents of products they are buying.
• Guidance for Member States on implementing accessibility provisions for buildings in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive;
• Introduce internal market legislation ensuring that access to essential services, as defined in the EU Pillar of Social Rights;
• Introduce copyright exemptions to a larger number of cultural works to facilitate accessible adaptations and availability of these for all persons with disabilities;
• Earmark EU funds for training on accessibility and communication;
• Make sure that passengers with disabilities can also benefit from the announced single digital booking and ticketing regulation on travel by making sure that the platform is accessible following the requirements of the European Accessibility Act;
• Strengthen the accessibility provisions in the upcoming revision of the Public Procurement Directive;

Actions for “Chapter 2” of the Strategy: Enjoying EU Rights

• Embed disability in the European Semester to shape the use of EU funds;
• Collect data on the number of young persons with disabilities that take part in Erasmus+ mobility programmes and collect this data on a regular basis to observe trends.

Actions for “Chapter 3” of the Strategy: Decent quality of life and living independently

• Directive to regulate the use of algorithms for managing, monitoring and recruiting workers that very clearly removes risks of discrimination for that candidates and employees with disabilities.
• Develop recommendations to the Member States on the benefits of enabling persons with disabilities to retain disability allowance regardless of employment, marital status and inheritance, with examples of EU Member States and other countries where disability allowance is not impacted by these factors.
• Commission a study into the extra cost of living of persons with disabilities.
• Issue a study into the extent to which people in the EU who offer informal support to family members and loved ones with disabilities, particularly women who are more likely to fill such roles, lose out on access to adequate income and pension entitlements later in life.
• Further guidance for the Member States on inclusive forms of employment.
• The Fundamental Rights Agency should conduct a study on the impact of the transition to adulthood for young persons with disabilities;

Actions for “Chapter 4” of the Strategy: Equal Access and non-discrimination

• The Commission should nominate a coordinator on ending all forms of violence against women. One of the roles of the coordinator should be to assess and address the challenges faced by women with intersecting identities, including women and girls with disabilities.
• The Commission should take action to ensure that national sign languages are given the legal status of languages. As a symbolic gesture, the EU should also establish a European Day of Sign Language.
• Adopt a Horizontal Equal Treatment Directive that would prohibit disability-based discrimination.
• Adopt an action plan on equality and intersectionality that will take into account the current and new strategies and plans addressing the barriers and discrimination faced by people with intersectional backgrounds, including disability, age, ethnicity, religion, gender and sexual orientation. The
• Develop and conduct an awareness raising campaign on women with disabilities.
• Collect and publish good practices related to autonomy and supported decision making of persons with disabilities.
• Conduct a study on how persons with disabilities are affected by hate speech.
• Use funding from Creative EU to explore the representation of persons with disabilities in the media.

Actions for “Chapter 5” of the Strategy: Promoting the rights of persons with disabilities globally

• Enhance support for EU accession countries in implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
• Ensure the next EU budget fully supports independent living for persons with disabilities beyond EU Member States.
• Ensure that disability inclusion is a central component in all EU climate adaptation and mitigation policies;
• Prepare for future crises by fully implementing existing UN and EU guidelines that address the rights of persons with disabilities;
• Organise a Reconstruction Conference dedicated to ensuring accessibility and inclusion in Ukraine’s rebuilding efforts.
• Protect Persons with Disabilities in Situations of Conflict and Fragile States

Actions for “Chapter 6” of the Strategy: Efficiently delivering the strategy

• Expand representation within the Disability Platform: Invite Member States to bring national organisations of persons with disabilities and invite EU accession countries to join the Platform.
• Analyse the implementation of the actions and flagship initiatives from the first half of the strategy.

Actions for “Chapter 7” of the Strategy: Leading by example 

• Set quota system for employees with disabilities in the EU institutions.
• Improve provision of reasonable accommodation by the European Personnel Recruitment Office.
• Review of the approach to including persons with disabilities in the traineeship programmes of all the EU institutions.
• Strengthen inclusive education in the European schools.

Actions for “Chapter 8” of the Strategy: Awareness, governance and measuring progress

• Continue with the monitoring framework for the Strategy.
• Follow up on the study on the functioning of the EU CRPD Monitoring Framework and revise its composition.
• Organise an annual Disability Rights Forum, on the model of the ‘Work Forum on the implementation of the CRPD’ previously organised by the European Commission
• Introduce changes to increase the impact of the Access City Awards.