News from our campaigns

Marrakesh Treaty

On 14 May, jointly with the EDF accessibility expert, EBU met with the Federation of European Publishers to discuss cooperation for the practical implementation of the Treaty.

On that occasion, we learned from the Italian Publishers’ Association that Italy had just approved its implementing legislation for the Marrakesh Treaty Directive; and in fact they now appear in the list of measures communicated to the Commission.

We are still waiting for Cyprus, Greece, Luxembourg, Portugal and Slovenia to adopt national legislation, over 6 months after the deadline.

No progress to report in the status of ratification of the Treaty in wider Europe.

Accessible Voting

On 9 May (Europe Day) we used communication on the Accessible Voting Awareness-Raising (AVA) brochure and video (see the article in this newsletter) to make the very first demand in our Statement more visible in the run-up to the elections.

The 2019 Work Forum on the Implementation of the UNCRPD by the EU and its Member States was used as a timely opportunity to communicate on our AVA project output, as the Forum included a session on political participation.

EU parties’ positions with regard to EBU Statement on European elections 2019

European Green Party (EGP) were the first to directly and explicitly respond to our Statement. They informed us that the party and its two lead candidates Ms Ska Keller of Germany and Mr Bas Eickhout of Netherlands “commit to all of (our) statements” (sic).

European Peoples’ Party (EPP) replied in extremis to express general support for our advocacy work and recognise that “(our) statement outlining 10 policy recommendations clearly shows that the EU needs to improve in the fields of political participation, equality and accessibility”; and, more concretely, to express “support for a scaling up of the EU Disability Card and expanding it to cover the whole EU”.

Noteworthy are the following elements picked up in the replies of five parties to a Human Rights Watch questionnaire:

  • Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Party support the need to press for a horizontal Equal Treatment (i.e. anti-discrimination) Directive and “a common definition of disability in line with the UNCRPD” – they stand out in this last point, which connects to our demand for useful statistics at EU level.
  • The European Peoples’ Party (EPP) support pressure on European institutions “to show leadership in making their websites fully accessible” and systematic attention to accessibility when preparing legislation “especially with regards to the built environment, public transport, public services and household appliances”.
  • The Party of European Socialists (PES) also defend the “quick and swift adoption” of the blocked Equal Treatment Directive, and improved accessibility “of built environment for services and of transport”. They seemingly stand out, in the questionnaire, as supporters of the need to ensure the right to vote of persons with disabilities.

The lead candidates of EGP, EPP and PES have signed the EDF "European Elections for All" petition. In which they commit to join the Disability Intergroup of the European Parliament and to work together with the disability movement to achieve namely the goal of fully accessible and inclusive European Elections for persons with disabilities.

MISCELLANEOUS

EBU was approached by the European Broadcasting Union (UER by its French acronym) to participate in the next annual plenary meeting (Dublin, 18 October) of their group of experts in accessibility, to develop and share best practices and present innovative services and exchange on common issues.

In general, UER would like to associate EBU more regularly in their work. This of course is to be seen in the context, as far as the EU is concerned, of the recent revision of the Audio-visual Media Services Directive, the which  Article 7 now obliges member states to “ensure continuous and progressive improvements” and to put in place reporting obligations and contact points to handle complaints against broadcasters.

We are currently in the process of identifying an expert in the area of accessibility of broadcasting services (essentially audio description, possibly also subtitles) for a positive response to UER.

EBU attended the part of the annual EU Disability High Level Group meeting (Brussels on 14 May) open to civil society organisations of the disability field.

We learned the following:

  • An EU candidate will be presented at the next elections to the UNCRPD committee, on the occasion of the Conference of State Parties in June.
  • Malta organised a conference on cooperation between the EU disability movement and the Arab disability organisations sponsored, with the support of the European Commission;
  • The Commission will launch an awareness raising campaign on anti-discrimination in employment, with various leaflets and videos in all EU languages, and will initiate a revision of Directive 2000/78/EC prohibiting discrimination in employment and occupation.
  • Member States are encouraged to organise national meetings on the implementation of the European Accessibility Act at national level, with the support of the Commission.
  • After European DPOs, Member States will in turn be consulted on the European Disability Strategy.
  • The assessment process of the EU Parking Card and Disability Card is currently being evaluated.

As usual, a big part of the meeting was dedicated to the presentations by some Member States (Bulgaria, Spain, Norway and Denmark) on their implementation of the UNCRPD, and this was followed by comments on the working method of the UNCRPD committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Romania and Finland, who in turn hold the EU presidency in 2019, presented their activities and plans for the year in the disability area.

ANED presented a very interesting synthesis report on disability assessment in the European States (Word format) which gives a clear picture of the situation in Europe.

New: Twitter-feed on the EBU website:

since 22 May, the EBU website’s home page (below “Latest news” and next to “Coming events”) contains a mobile phone-shaped window showing the latest EBU Twitter-messages. This is useful in particular for those of our Members and followers that don’t use this social network.