Summary
- The Conclusions present a clear view of the issues with independent living, but they do not provide many solutions.
- EU countries recognise the importance of personal assistance, supported decision-making, the need to support carers and the increased risks of violence and abuse for women and girls with disabilities.
- They refuse to mention that many countries have more people institutionalised now than a decade ago. They also ignored proposals to earmark EU funds, and to make use of EU funds conditional to support of best practices.
Clear view of issues
EU countries adopted on Friday the ‘Council Conclusions on the social inclusion of persons with disabilities through the promotion of independent living‘ (PDF).
The Council Conclusions are a ‘mixed bag’ for us.
The Member States have clearly done their homework, trying to integrate some of our demands. However, they have intentionally avoided holding themselves accountable for their failures. They also did not commit to tough measures that would help resolve the situation.
We do appreciate that these Conclusions accurately depict the situation, including:
- the importance of personal assistance and supported decision-making.
- the particular risk of abuse and violence faced by women and girls with disabilities
- the need to support informal carers.
We also appreciate the emphasis on the need for more actions on de-institutionalisation in the upcoming activities of the EU Strategy on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It also frequently references to the EU Guidance on Independent Living and Inclusion in the Community.
However, we also note that Member States were clearly against accepting the important input we provided to the Conclusions.
No will to find solutions
These strategic omissions say as much as all the positive elements within the document.
The most notable were the following:
- they refuse to mention that many Member States currently have more persons with disabilities housed in institutions than a decade ago. This shows a clear lack of accountability about the failures of many EU Member States.
- Countries pushed back against a number of calls to add clearer rules and earmarking for the use of EU funds, presumably because this would take away a certain freedom in how they could spend the money.
They rejected calls from the disability movement to:
- earmark EU funds to support independent living across the Member States;
- foresee more spending and technical assistance to Member States on supporting extra costs incurred during the transition from institutional to community-based forms of support and independent living;
- make use of EU funds to support independent living conditional on following the provisions outlined in the EU Guidance on Independent Living and Inclusion in the Community.
Ioannis Vardakastanis, President of the European Disability Forum, said:
While the Council Conclusions do accurately reflect many of the things the disability movement is calling for, the Member States have clearly tried to let themselves off the hook: both in terms of admitting their own shortcomings, and in terms of committing to concrete actions that would pave the way for improvements.