Latest news from our ongoing campaigns

Marrakesh Treaty

No progress to report as far as national measures of implementation of the EU Directive in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal and Slovenia is concerned, nor in the status of ratification of the Treaty elsewhere in Europe.

On 14 May, EBU will meet with the Federation of European Publishers to discuss cooperation for the practical implementation of the Treaty.

European Accessibility Act

After the European Parliament earlier this year, the EU Council approved in turn the text on 9 April, resulting in its formal adoption.. We issued a press release.

European elections 2019 and beyond

Respectively on 20 March and 10 April, in meetings with EDF, Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the European Commission and lead candidate for the Party of European Socialists, and Manfred Weber, lead candidate for the European People’s Party made significant commitments.

  • Mr Timmermans said: “Progress has been made but more needs to be done to ensure that people with disabilities are guaranteed the opportunities and conditions to live in dignity, pursue their aspirations and participate in today’s rapidly changing world. The socio-economic challenges people with disabilities face, such as unemployment and risk of poverty or social exclusion, are still too big and the gap with people without disabilities unacceptably wide.” This connects well to the demand in our Statement concerning employment-related statistics.
  • Mr Weber said: “Millions of people with disabilities will not be able to vote at the next European elections and decide about the future of our continent. This is unacceptable! We need to guarantee that persons with disabilities fully enjoy all the opportunities our societies offer without any discrimination, starting with their basic democratic rights. (…) I commit to an EU that defends Disability Rights.” This is a direct response to the first demand in our Statement regarding political participation.

In connection with our demand for statistics, the Commission interestingly pointed out that Eurostat bases its work on national statistics bodies, and that it cannot produce the type of EU-level statistics we want as long as the Member States don’t agree on a common approach to disability; and that the DPOs’ support is needed to press at national level for an approach based not on an assessment of health/degree of disability, but rather on what the needs are for inclusion, in line with the UNCRPD.