Our last Board meeting of 2023 took place on the 27 November online.
During the meeting, the Board:
- Welcomed new members: the Association Alliance of Organisations for Persons with Disabilities Moldova, Fundacia Aprobata from Poland and the European Platform for Rehabilitation.
- Adopted the Third Manifesto on Women and Girls with Disabilities, to be published in 2024.
- Was presented with the main achievements of 2023, including the 5th European Parliament of Persons with Disabilities, the proposal and press conference on the European Disability Card and the 7th issue of the Human Rights Report on the right to work. We also presented the increased media attention resulting from those achievements.
- Discussed the upcoming campaign for the European Elections. EDF will call for the proposals included in our Manifesto, will encourage candidates, political parties and EU institutions to make an accessible campaign, and will call for more candidates and EU policy makers with disabilities.
- Was updated on the work of current and future Council Presidencies: Spain, Belgium, Hungary. In addition, we received updates on plans from Denmark.
- Discussed ongoing and upcoming policy priorities, including the European Disability Card, the Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence, the Artificial Intelligence Act, the Regulation on protection of adults, Passengers Rights, and progress and future evaluation of the European Disability Rights Strategy 2021-2030.
- Was briefed on a new “Study on Guidance to Increase Access to Healthcare”,
- Was updated on the progress towards EDFs Green action Plan (which is a commitment stemming from EDF Green policy).
- Was provided an in-depth update on our work in International Cooperation and humanitarian action. It included co-hosting the Global Action on Disability (GLAD) Network Annual General Meeting with the European Commission in October 2023, the upcoming European regional summit on international cooperation in November 2024 and our support to the International Disability Alliance’s statement on Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.
- Discussed EDF’s external evaluation- the results will be published soon online
- Voted on options for changes to the EDF statutes, as part of the EDF Constitutional review process.
The Board also discussed the work of our Committee’s:
- Pirkko Mahlamäki presented the work of the EDF Women’s Committee, including the campaign on ending forced sterilisation, peer exchange on combating violence against women and the work on the third EDF manifesto on women and girls with disabilities.
- Jonathan Wahlström presented the work of the EDF’s Youth Committee, including their participation in the European Youth Event, on the jury of the European Youth Capital, and delivering training on inclusive youth events. The Committee will be working on the second Youth Manifesto.
- mOuray Human Rights Committee updated members on human rights issues raised by members across Europe and progress on the 8th Human Rights Report on legal capacity and coercion that will be published in 2024.
- The Social Policy and Inclusion Committee discussed its advocacy plan to guide the Commission in creating new actions and flagship initiatives for the second half of the EU Strategy on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities post 2025, including an EU Disability Employment and Skills Guarantee initiative.
Finally, the EDF secretariat provided a training to participants on how to lobby EU institutions at national level