Brussels, 12/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - In Berlin on Monday 11 June, the German presidency of the EU held a ministerial conference, “Education, Employment, Equal Opportunities - Empowering Persons with Disabilities”. The aim of the conference, which was chaired by Franz Müntefering, was to give fresh impetus to disability policy worldwide. The conference, attended by representatives of civil society, the social partners and the European institutions - including Commissioner Vladimir Spidla and his Director General Nikolaus van der Pars - was devoted to the new United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted at the end of 2006.
“It is an important political signal, when, in the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All, for the first time, a top-level ministerial conference is being held on the integration of people with disabilities. It is a testimony to the European Union's determination to take steps to integrate these people and to respect and value diversity in European society and the European economy. This is a significant development which represents a sea change in European disability policy. … It is essential to integrate people with disabilities if we want the European project to include humanity, justice and solidarity, rather than just 'performance',” Mr Spidla said. Now, the Commissioner felt, a European strategy to implement the Convention had to be developed, enabling all member states and the Community to ratify or sign and implement it as best and as quickly as possible. The Convention contains provisions on education, training and employment, and its basic principles are non-discrimination and equal opportunities, notes a presidency press release, adding that the Convention would give new impetus to disability policy.
Mr Spidla announced that (1) on the occasion of the European Day for People with Disabilities in early December, he would present a communication in which he would set out the Commission's next action plan on disabilities, which will primarily be devoted to implementing the UN Convention; (2) he would, early next year, submit a proposal for a regulation, authorising the Community to sign the Convention - a declaration forming part of the regulation would seek to define the responsibilities of the Community and of member states with regard to the Convention, he said; (3) he would submit proposals of how member states and the Community were to meet their reporting obligations under Article 35 of the Convention. (gb)