The European disability movement launched the EDF Manifesto on the European Elections 2024: “Building an inclusive future for persons with disabilities in the EU” in 2023. The Manifesto testifies the need for strong, concrete actions until 2030 to ensure equality for persons with disabilities.

The strategy is divided into eight chapters that cover different areas where the EU aims to improve the lives of persons with disabilities, the last three of which focus on how to deliver the strategy in practice and measure its impact. These are:

1. Accessibility – an enabler of rights, autonomy and equality
2. Enjoying EU Rights
3. Decent quality of life and living independently
4. Equal Access and non-discrimination
5. Promoting the rights of persons with disabilities globally
6. Efficiently delivering the strategy
7. Leading by example
8. Awareness, governance and measuring progress

The strategy also identifies “flagship initiatives”: initiatives such as laws or the creations of permanent bodies that will have a stronger long-term impact.On the basis of the Manifesto – and taking into account the current structure of the European Disability Rights Strategy – the European Disability Forum calls on the European Commission to propose the initiatives described below.

We propose 8 new flagship initiatives to implement until 2030.

Disability Employment and Skills Guarantee

We want the EU to establish a Disability Employment and Skills Guarantee, in line with the successful Youth Guarantee, to provide funding and support to ensure that persons with disabilities have equal access to mainstream education, training and employment opportunities, including self-employment and entrepreneurship. The Guarantee should also offer support in making every training and skills-development programme fully inclusive and accessible.

In order to meet the needs of persons with disabilities, the Disability Employment and Skills Guarantee would need to have some considerable differences with the Youth Guarantee. Notably:

1. It should be open to people who are receiving disability allowance and allow them to retain this allowance when in work, training or education. The fact of being the recipient of disability allowance should not result in the person in question not being considered to be a NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) as is currently the case for the Youth Guarantee
2. The age restriction should of course be lifted, as barriers to the open labour market for persons with disabilities are often experienced throughout a person’s entire life;
3. Extra resources should be on offer, from the funding attached to the Disability Employment Guarantee, to assist in providing reasonable accommodations for the person at work (since in most EU Member States reimbursement of costs for reasonable accommodation to employers are only subsidised for employees with a permanent contract).
4. The Guarantee would need to very carefully clarify which types of work settings people can be supported into as part of the scheme. Excluded from the scope of the Guarantee should be sheltered workshops exclusively for persons with disabilities where workers do not have the legal status of employee and are not paid in line with national, regional or sectoral minimum wage requirements. Emphasis should be on placements in the open labour market, or in social enterprises that support people into mainstream forms of employment, focusing on transition.

The EU, in its next Multiannual Financial Framework, should increase the budget going towards the European Social Fund to ensure that the inclusion of new social initiatives does not dilute spending elsewhere.

A European Agency for Accessibility

The disability movement demands the establishment of a new regulatory European agency for accessibility as a follow-up of the AccessibleEU centre. The mission of the agency would include:

• providing specialised information and policy recommendations to EU Institutions and Member States;
• adopting technical specifications and standards to support EU accessibility legislation
• supporting and monitoring the implementation of accessibility legislation;
• ensuring the involvement of persons with disabilities, their organisations, and other stakeholders.

EU legislation on the availability and affordability of Assistive Technologies

We demand strong legislative measures to ensure a market that guarantees the wide availability of affordable assistive technologies:

• Guarantee that persons with disabilities residing in the EU have the same access to the most suitable assistive technologies.
• National certification schemes do not hinder access for users and ICT providers.
• The legislation should ensure access to independent support that helps find, train and maintain the most adequate technology

Update of Passengers’ Rights Regulations

The disability movement demands legislative measures in air travel to stop situations such as denial of boarding, obligation to travel with an assistant without the air carrier paying for the extra ticket, and insufficient compensation for loss or damage of assistive and mobility equipment.

Furthermore, we call for better provision of quality assistance and more efforts to harmonise and expand accessibility requirements in transport infrastructure.

Directive on freedom of movement of persons with disabilities in the EU

The Disability movement is calling for a directive on the shared responsibility of Member States for disability support towards EU citizens moving from one Member State to another, enforcing either the obligation to:

• Retain coverage from one’s Member State of origin through “portability” of one’s benefits until the moment that the citizen has established residence in a new Member State
• The right to undergo assessment from the new Member State of residence before moving there, while still in one’s Member State of origin, but with the intent to move – meaning that the assessment is ready by the time the person moves, or
• Better coordinate the disability assessment procedures between the different EU Member States to allow for mutual recognition of disability status between EU Member States.

EU legislation on Accessible Labelling

We are calling on the EU to Introduce a Regulation on accessible labelling to ensure that consumers with disabilities can enjoy increased autonomy and be fully informed of the contents of products they are buying. This could include:

We want to work alongside EU decision-makers to help devise an easy-to-implement solution that will enable all persons with disabilities to simply and autonomously be able to find the following information on products when shopping

• product name, weight, ingredients sell-by date in accessible format.
• instructions on the use of the device being sold, and safety measures.
• access to cooking instructions
• nutritional information and recommended daily consumption

EU Strategy on the Transition from Institutions to Inclusion in the Community

We are calling for the EU to develop a European Deinstitutionalisation Strategy, and act against the segregation of persons with disabilities, including children with disabilities. Additionally, we want the EU to ensure and guarantee appropriate measures and support for the transition from institutions to independent living and community-based services, allowing for the full and effective participation of persons with disabilities in the community. The strategy should foresee the following:

• How the EU and the Member States can regularly update and make publicly available the data on the number of persons with disabilities living in institutions
• Obligations to better monitor projects for independent living using EU funds, to ensure they do not perpetuate institutional care, including the use of development funding going outside of the EU
• Technical support to national and local authorities on preparing for the transition away from institutions
• Training for service providers to move towards person-centred support and respect of the CRPD
• Financial support for the “cost of transition”
• Information campaigns to persons with disabilities, and current residents of institutions, on their options and choices outside of institutional care
• Campaigns to attract people to become personal assistants and to improve working conditions in the sector
• Support to national and local authorities to set up direct payment systems to persons with disabilities for their personal assistance budget
• Support to families and informal carers

Europe-wide survey on violence against persons with disabilities

Carry out a large-scale, Europe-wide survey on violence against persons with disabilities, which pays attention to the specific situation of women, children, and older people with disabilities. The survey should determine the real situation they face and facilitate the design and adoption of comprehensive legislation and policies to combat it.

It is essential that the EU Institutions invest sufficient resources to ensure the proposed flagships make a significant impact in the life of persons with disabilities.

This is why it is essential that the EU Institutions strengthen their decision-making on disability issues. We demand:

• That the next President of the European Commission appoints an EU Commissioner with a strong mandate for Equality and Fundamental Rights.
• Ensure strong services focusing on disability rights in the European Commission through the creation of a new Directorate-General for Equality and Fundamental Rights under the leadership of the Commissioner for Equality.
• The establishment of a Disability Committee in the European Parliament
• The establishment of an Equality Configuration in the Council.
• Ensure the next EU budget properly funds civil society organisations working on equality, non-discrimination and anti-racism.

• Copyright exemptions on cultural works for accessibility
• A Directive to regulate the use of algorithms for managing, monitoring and recruiting workers
• Legislation on the availability and cost of assistive devices and technology
• Review of rules on the use of European Regional Development Funds to invest in accessible housing stock
• Recommendations to the Member States on compatibility between disability allowance and other forms of income
• Study on the extra cost of living of persons with disabilities
• Data collection on people living in institutions
• Recognition of national sign languages as part of the multilingual EU
• Develop Disability Action Plan for EU External Action
• Budget for Community-based Support beyond the EU Member States
• Research into the impact of mental health issues on people in the EU
• A study on the challenges faced by young persons with disabilities during the transition to adulthood
• Initiatives using EU funding on the representation of persons with disabilities in the media