In a report by Rosa Estaràs Ferragut (EPP, Spanish), adopted on Thursday 27 November (490 votes in favour, 9 against, 109 abstentions), the European Parliament calls on the European Commission to update the European Union’s 2021-2030 strategy to promote the rights of people with disabilities, presenting new flagship initiatives such as the introduction of an ‘European employment and skills guarantee’.
MEPs are recommending a number of initiatives at European level, including: - develop a ‘European employment and skills guarantee’ for people with disabilities; - fully implement the European Accessibility Act (2019/882) and extend its scope “to all relevant goods and services in the single market”; - develop legislation to guarantee a true single market for assistive devices and technologies; - adopt a European definition of the term ‘disability’ to “ensure that all EU citizens with all kinds of disabilities are granted equal rights”; - strengthen the ‘AccessibleEU’ resource centre with a “permanent regulatory agency” to support the implementation of the relevant legislation.
More broadly, Parliament calls on the Commission to present “a Directive on minimum income”, which would set minimum standards for coverage and accessibility.
MEPs note that disabled children are one of the target groups of the ‘European Child Guarantee’. According to an amendment adopted by the EPP, ECR and PfE Groups, this instrument should benefit from a “substantial” budget, rather than at least €20 billion, as requested in the draft report from the parliamentary committee.
See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/jpg (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)