On 3 May 2023, a delegation of the European Disability Forum led by Vice President Gunta Anca met European Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean. The EDF delegation stressed the need to increase EU regulations to protect– and compensate – passengers with disabilities who encounter discrimination.
EDF’s delegation started by presenting its most recent report, “End the nightmare: Passengers with disabilities deserve to travel by air”, and the shocking examples of discrimination experienced by passengers with disabilities. EDF is convinced that the only way to mitigate this discrimination is through legislative measures, especially at the EU-level. That is why, we renewed our call to Commissioner Vălean to commit to the revision of Regulation 1107/2006 on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Reduced Mobility when traveling by air, especially to:
- Eradicate all cases of denial of boarding.
- Introduce a right to swift and fair compensation if an air carrier still denies boarding.
- Provide an extra ticket free of charge for the passenger who is obliged to travel accompanied.
- Provide quality assistance in the airport and on the plane.
The delegation also underlined that EU legislation regarding the liability for damaged or destroyed assistive equipment must be revised and enhance protection beyond the insufficient standards set by international conventions.
The delegations also discussed other measures to improve air travel of persons with disabilities. The Commissioner presented plansto update the Interpretative Guidelines for Regulation 1107/2006, collect data on cases of discrimination, and improve the quality of services at airports and during air travel.
The delegations further discussed the need to improve protections in all modes of transport, including:
- Improve enforcement by introducing automatic reimbursement and compensation, increased powers for the National Enforcement Bodies (NEBs) and gathering and publication of data on passenger complaints;
- Improve protection in multimodal transport by ensuring that the rights that exist in sectorial legislation are also guaranteed in the multimodal context;Increase rail accessibility, notably my monitoring the implementation of current EU regulations on interoperability (TSI-PRM – relaunch the work of its Advisory Body, revise to include accessibility of rail platforms, restaurant cars and double-deck vehicles;
- Ensure accessibility of recharging stations for electric vehicles, notably by involving us on the sub-group on accessibility of the Sustainable Transport Forum
Gunta Anca, Vice-President of the European Disability Forum, stated:
Countless persons with disabilities, including me, have lost track of how many horror stories and nightmares we suffered when travelling. It’s time the European Union takes strong measures to ensure that we can travel with dignity and free from fear for our wellbeing and that of our expensive assistive equipment.
European Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean said:
I want to thank EDF for all their work towards improving the situation of people with disabilities when travelling. Their input and testimonies in this report will help us to better understand the underlying problems that persons with reduced mobility face every day.
We are currently preparing a passenger rights review which will look to strengthen enforcement of existing rights, as well as at passenger rights when travelling with several modes of transport, thereby also serving to protect better persons with disabilities.