On Monday 5 March, the European Parliament and Council met up for the first time to discuss the directive on access to products and services, take stock of their respective positions and set out a work calendar.
It should be recalled that the Commission presented its initiative almost four months late, in December 2015. The initiative sought to introduce common requirements to help people with disabilities access certain products and services more easily, such as automatic ticket machines, banking services and computers, etc. (see EUROPE 11444). The European Parliament reached its position in September (see EUROPE 11862) and the Council did likewise in December last year (see EUROPE 11921).
The discussions during this first meeting focused on the extent of the directive's scope of application, the “disproportionate” obstacles, particularly with regard to excluding micro-entities from the directive's scope of application (a position shared by the two institutions), standards and technical specifications, the “CE marking” on product compliance and accessibility, implementation and the timeframe for transposition.
We were informed that several points are expected to be subject to heated discussions during the negotiations, beginning with Parliament's introduction into the directive of the “built environment" concept where services are provided. This proposal was not included in the Council's position. Parliament would like to introduce public transport into the text, in an attempt to acquire a more horizontal effect, whereas the Council does not want to cover transport, given that access to transport is already covered in other sectoral legislative texts. The Council's wish not to exclude harmonised prescriptions applicable to access for public procurement will also be discussed.
The next inter-institutional meeting (trialogue) will take place on 12 April next. Two other trialogue dates have been arranged for 15 May and 26 June. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)