The outcome of the UN CRPD Committee review of the EU was positive. The recommendations contained in the Concluding Observations well addresses our explicit asks and also those pushed through the European Disability Forum (EDF) in general. See our press release.
Other good news is that Kazakhstan (European Region of WBU and an EBU member) acceded to the Marrakesh Treaty, becoming the 100th State Party.
We have started to prepare the advocacy toward the next EU Presidency Trio (Ireland, Lithuania, Greece) covering the period from July 2026 to end of 2027. And in that perspective we are staring to prepare the next annual meeting of the EBU Advocacy Committee in Lithuania in the fall.
The month of April was largely dedicated to pursuing the preparatory work for a background note to the (EU) European Semester process on the “disability benefits trap” issue.
The concept note for an EBU campaign on accessible household appliances was sent to the Board for approval. Meanwhile, it is an excellent result that this gap of the European Accessibility Act is explicitly mentioned in the CRPD recommendations (see above).
Announced for May is a Disability Platform consultation meeting on the digital features of the European Disability Card and European Parking Card for persons with disabilities. We asked for expressions of interest to participate within our Accessibility Working Group.
The joint letter with the European Emergency Number Association (EENA), EDF, and other organisations was eventually published. The EBU members whose countries in the EU are concerned by failure to ensure accessibility for visually impaired people of emergency communications through handset-based caller location, were asked to bring this letter to the attention of their governments.
The preparation together with Fundaciόn ONCE of the AccessibleEU conference of July 1st, “How to Improve Accessibility of Banking Services”, where we aim to raise the visibility of our recommendations for accessible payment terminals, is ongoing.