Our first Board meeting of 2023 took place on the 1 April in Stockholm, Sweden. The meeting followed the Conference Disability Rights, Accessibility and Artificial Intelligence” which took place on the 31 March (read the summary of the morning; read the summary of the afternoon).
During the meeting, the Board:
- Approved a resolution on the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, calling for it to ensure that all persons with disabilities can benefit from accessible, affordable, and available AI-technologies.
- Welcomed four new members: Centre for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) Moldova; Ålands handikappförbund; European Deaf Students Association (EDSU) and European Institute for Research, Training and Vocational Guidance (IERFOP) from Italy
- Discussed the upcoming 5th European Parliament of Persons with Disabilities, which will take place on 23 May. The Board also agreed on the political demands being prepared for the Disability Parliament to be presented as a Manifesto for the next European Elections.
- Discussed our engagement with the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – including the importance of having qualified experts from European countries nominated and elected;
- Was updated on policy developments: the implementation of the EU Disability Rights Strategy 2021-2030, the EU Disability Card, the AccessibleEU Centre, the Employment Package, guidelines on deinstitutionalisation, the EU Talent Pool, and our work on legislation such as the Directive to Combat Violence Against Women and the revision of Passenger Rights Regulations;
- Approved our financial statements of 2022 and discussed our draft Work Plan for 2024, which the Annual General Assembly will adopt in May.
- Was updated on the work of current and future Council Presidencies: Sweden, Spain, Belgium and Denmark.
Our committees (Human Rights and Non-Discrimination, and Social Policy and Inclusion), met online on the 23 March:
- Members of the Human Rights Committee exchanged on the implementation of the CRPD and human rights issues in their countries, progress on the EDF human rights report on legal capacity, the work of the CRPD Committee and human rights priorities in the EU, including the campaign to end forced sterilisation.
- The Social Policy Committee discussed EDF’s new position paper on institutions, our input to the Commission’s planned guidelines on reasonable accommodation at work, the launch of our Human Rights Report on employment set for the 27 April and the upcoming high-level meetings with Commissioners Nicolas Schmit and Elisa Ferreira.