Three years after the presentation of the draft Directive by the European Commission (see EUROPE 11444), representatives of the European Parliament and the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the EU marked an interim interinstitutional agreement on the very difficult Directive on accessibility to products and services on Thursday 8 November.
"The European Accessibility Act establishes the world's largest market for accessible products and services. This will have a positive impact on the lives of more than 80 million Europeans with disabilities", said Marianne Thyssen, Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, who was attending the EPP Party Congress in Helsinki, in a statement (see other news).
On the last points to be discussed (see EUROPE 12129, 12108), access to the 112 number, the European emergency number, has been included in the scope of the Directive. Germany has requested the introduction of a recital to take into account the specificities of its model of emergenyc number.
Public procurement will also be covered by the future rules, but only those products and services covered by the Directive will be covered.
Accessibility to the built environment, where services are provided, is included in the scope of the Directive. However, the adaptation of the built environment remains voluntary. A review clause on this point has been introduced, a source told us.
As for the exemption of microenterprises, it would be partial and would only concern microenterprises providing services.
Urban transport has been included in the scope of the Directive, but with "lighter" modalities, since only websites and terminals would be concerned.
On the other hand, intermodal transport has not been added. The reason is that there is no absolutely clear and stable definition of what intermodality is. In practice, this means that a disabled traveller on a journey that includes a flight and a train journey will have easy access for air and rail, but not necessarily on the intermediate journey.
It should be noted that the Directive will also cover elderly people. The transposition period has been extended to three years while the general implementation of the provisions has been set at six years.
The provisional agreement has yet to be approved by both the European Parliament and the Member States.
Disappointment. The European Disability Forum welcomed as a step forward the accessibility of many products (computers, smartphones, ATMs) and services. However, it regretted the exemptions granted to intermodal transport, microenterprises and many buildings.
"EU Member States have failed their disabled citizens. It looks more like a European Union of companies than a European Union of people", said Yannis Vardakastanis, the organisation's president. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)