In a statement issued to mark the International Day of Disabled Persons on Wednesday 3 December, the European Disability Forum (EDF) called on the European Union, national governments and international organisations to guarantee stable and sufficient funding for representative organisations.
According to EDF, these organisations are essential to an inclusive democratic process and to the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. However, several Member States are reducing their commitments, as the organisation has pointed out.
This call is all the more clear in the light of the latest report from the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, published on 27 November (https://aeur.eu/f/jtz ), which notes that more than 1.4 million disabled persons in the EU are currently living in institutions.
The report describes a series of systematic acts of violence, including insults, forced care, over-medication, abuse of restraint measures and financial and sexual exploitation. Persons with intellectual disabilities, children and the elderly are most at risk. In addition, these abuses are said to be exacerbated by a chronic lack of staff and resources, as well as a lack of awareness of residents’ rights in specialised institutions.
Highlighting the positive example of Luxembourg in this area, which has increased its budget allocated to the disability sector by 28% in 2025, the EDF called on the EU to follow Luxembourg’s example to halt this worrying trend by providing more funding in the next Multiannual Financial Framework, protecting civil society and supporting deinstitutionalisation. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)