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Background
The EDF Disability Specific Directive is a draft that has been prepared over a period of 24 months. A lot of work, time and resources were invested in this draft, coming from EBU and other EDF member organisations, and the EDF Secretariat. All the members of EDF were consulted continuously throughout the 24 month period of the drafting of the Shadow Directive and their contributions were taken into account when the legal experts were drawing up the text. This Directive is not to be confused with current EU legislation in force. It is a shadow Directive whose text was presented formally to the EU Institutions as a proactive contribution towards our key objective of a comprehensive disability specific legislation.
On 12 March 2004, the EDF President Yannis Vardakastanis presented the EDF proposal for a Disability Specific Directive at a meeting of the Disability Intergroup of the European Parliament. The EDF President explained in his speech why EDF and its members request a disability specific directive.
The legal base of this Disability Specific Directive is
Article 13 of the EC Treaty, which enables the Community to take initiatives to combat discrimination on the grounds of disability. The Community has already made use of these new provisions, in particular in the areas of employment and occupation.
On the basis of this new Treaty article, the Council adopted on 27 November 2000 Directive 2000/78/EC "Establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation". The Directive prohibits any discrimination, be it direct or indirect, on the grounds of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation. With regard to disability, this Directive recognises that the failure to provide a reasonable accommodation in the workplace can constitute discrimination. The concept of reasonable accommodation includes measures to adapt the workplace to people with disabilities, for example adapting premises and equipment, patterns of working time, etc. in order to facilitate their access to employment.
When the Employment Directive was presented, it was received by EDF and its members with mixed feelings. It was well accepted because of the fact that the European Commission, so soon after the entry in force of Article 13, had made use of their right to initiative. But there were worries because the Directive's scope was only limited to employment and vocational training.
EDF and its members did a lot of work in the run-up to the adoption of the Employment Directive and we are very active in the current process of implementation at national level. What is now needed is a parallel approach, ensuring on one hand the swift and proper implementation of the Employment Directive and on the other hand the promotion of a new directive.
Disabled people suffer from discrimination not only in the field of employment but also in areas of life like public transport, education and access to goods and services, which also have a huge impact on the employment potential of disabled people.
Disabled people look with envy to the legislation in the
Americans with Disabilities Act and want a European with Disabilities Act and ask for disability specific comprehensive non-discrimination legislation.
Support for a Disability Specific Directive has already been received from the German Government, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions, the ETUC and the Social Platform.
Article 13
"Without prejudice to the other provisions of this Treaty and within the limits of the powers conferred by it upon the Community, the Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission and after consulting the European Parliament, may take appropriate action to combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation".
Resolution on Non-discrimination
adopted by the EDF Annual General Assembly on 24 May 2003 in Athens
1. Introduction
Acknowledging that a comprehensive and enforceable anti discrimination legislation has proven a major instrument to produce the paradigm shift in disability policy; Highlighting that such legislation changes the physical and communications environment, as well as it tackles the attitudinal barriers, while also preventing the establishment of new barriers;
Recognising that Article 13 of the EC Treaty provides the legal base to combat discrimination of disabled people, as the adoption in November 2000 of the EC directive on equal treatment in the workplace has shown. Recalling that the directive is currently being implemented at national level, although progress is slower than desired;
Underlining the importance of the so called "parallel approach" by focusing on two different but complementary issues : 1. the correct implementation at national level of the General Framework Directive for Equal Treatment in Employment and Occupation, and 2. the promotion of a comprehensive EU anti discrimination legislation, which would cover all fields of EU competence that affect disabled people, specifically policy areas such as transport, education, access to information, social protection, public health, consumer affairs, housing, telecommunications.
Informing that in order to promote this second element, EDF has finalised, after two years of consultation with its membership and with the support of renowned legal experts, a proposal for such a directive, which has been already presented to the EU institutions;
Recalling the favourable opinion of the European Parliament on the adoption of a disability specific directive
The European Disability Forum meeting at its Annual General Assembly on May 24 2003 in Athens:
2. Decisions
a- Urges all EU member states as well as accession countries to transpose the EU Directive establishing a General Framework for Equal Treatment in Employment and Occupation before the end of this year and by the end of 2004 respectively and to consult with the representative disability organizations during the implementation process. Calls on the EU Member States not to make use of the possibility to request an additional time for the implementation of the directive.
b- Requests the European Commission to initiate the process towards a horizontal anti-discrimination directive on the grounds of disability based on current article 13, that will cover all relevant areas of life in the fields of:
- Social protection, including social security, social advantages, health care services and housing;
- education, culture leisure and sports;
- access to the built environment and public transport;
- access to information and communication systems and assistive technologies
- access to services, facilities and goods, which are available to the general public.
c- Requests the members of the Convention on the future of Europe as well as the EU Member States and accession countries when starting the process of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) to strengthen the non discrimination provisions in the future Treaty, incorporating the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights into the text of the Treaty and ensuring that the resulting article or clause providing a legal base for non discrimination initiatives will be subject to qualified majority voting and co-decision procedure;
d- Decides to disseminate the present Resolution to all relevant stakeholders at local, regional and national level as well as at European level and request their public support to this resolution.
European Parliament Resolution on the Social Policy Agenda
14. Insists on the need to submit, during the European Year of People with
Disabilities, a proposal for a directive based on Article 13 of the Treaty
with a view to combating discrimination on grounds of disability.
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