The European Parliament will hold a plenary debate (and vote) on 4 October about their report on the AccessibleEU Centre. This Centre, announced as a flagship initiative of the EU Disability Rights Strategy, will bring together national authorities, experts, disability organisations and professionals to share good practices on accessibility, inspire policy making and develop tools and standards to facilitate the implementation of EU law.
Self-initiative report
The report that will be discussed in the European Parliament is tabled by one of the Chairs of the European Parliament’s Disability Intergroup, MEP Katrin Langensiepen. This self-initiative report aims to influence the establishment of this Centre and underlines the following key points:
- The need for considerable funding and human resources to be dedicated to the Centre;
- It is essential to involve persons with disabilities, and their representative organisations, in all their work;
- Member States need to establish national accessibility hubs that mirror the work of the Centre;
- The Centre must be underpinned by a solid human resources structure, which includes both a secretariat and a forum of representatives including persons with disabilities and Members of the European Parliament. It also calls for gender balance in its composition.
- The Centre must support EU Institutions and countries in implementing existing legislation and developing new legislation and guidance.
- It should facilitate networking and exchange between all relevant actors (governments, representative organisations of persons with disabilities, experts, professionals, academia)
- Denotes that, besides its role in accessibility legislation, the Centre must work on:
- Research and Development
- increasing employment of persons with disabilities;
- Creating programmes in higher education and professional training related to accessibility;
- Ensure an increase in the number and quality of accessibility;
- Guarantee that standards-setting organisations involve persons with disabilities on an equal footing with others.
Our opinion
The European Disability Forum welcomes this report and hopes it positively influences the the work of the future AccessibleEU centre. Last week the European Commission closed the Call for Tenders to establish the centre, which will presumably start this yar.
We, again, call on the EU Institutions to consider this project as a way to establish the EU Agency for Accessibility.
The debate’s indicative time is between 09:00-11:50 CET. You can watch the Plenary’s livestream.
Related links
- Report on AccessibleEU Centre in support of accessibility policies in the EU internal market
- Agenda of the Plenary Sitting
- Livestream of the Plenary
- Article “The European Parliament votes for an impactful AccessibleEU centre