The newly elected Board, along with members of the national councils of persons with disabilities, met in Dublin, Ireland, on 24 and 25 October to discuss the priorities of the European Disability movement. We especially thank the Disability Federation of Ireland and the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU for supporting this meeting.
The Conference on Affordable and Inclusive Housing for Persons with Disabilities preceded the meeting and brought together experts on the topic from Ireland and across the EU, including the European Commission. In 3 workshops, participants discussed affordability, rules and standards, and the link between housing and Independent Living for persons with disabilities.
The EDF Board:
- Adopted an emergency resolution on AgoraEU
- approved the new members of the EDF Women’s Committee and EDF Youth Committee.
- welcomed ‘Asociația Obștească Copiii Ploii’ from Moldova as a new member.
- discussed the main areas to be addressed in our upcoming review of the EDF statutes.
- approved the creation of a Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, which will promote and enhance diversity within the Forum.
- Had an update on EU policy developments. It was announced that the European Commission intends to review in 2027 legislation regarding the rights of passengers with disabilities in all modes of transport. They were also briefed in developments on the next EU budget, public procurement, rail accessibility, and electronic communications.
- Discussed the concerns of proposed simplification of the Data Omnibus, and agreed the Forum and its members should act swiftly to influence the final negotiations.
The meeting included a peer exchange on national monitoring frameworks for the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, with an focus on the Portuguese and Austrian frameworks. Participants heard from Vera Bonvalot, President of the monitoring mechanism in Portugal, and Victoria Biber, Board member representing the Austrian Disability Council on the Austrian model. The two speakers reported on the strengths of their national mechanisms, including their composition, mandate, activities, and engagement with representative organisations of persons with disabilities. Board members then contributed to the discussion sharing experience from across Europe.
We will publish our next Human Rights Report on these monitoring mechanisms as part of our work to improve monitoring of the rights of persons with disabilities in Europe.
Two of our Committees also met during the Board meeting.
The Human Rights Committee discussed the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities and human rights priorities in their countries. They exchanged views on the working methods of the committee and received a short update from the secretariat, including on the UN Convention on older persons.
The Social Policy Committee took decisions on EDF’s future advocacy on new EU public procurement legislation, discussed the direction of future EDF research into healthcare and independent living, and learned about some of EDF’s project work on youth. Members of the Committee also shared recent and pressing social policy