The European Social Network (ESN) recently joined the European Disability Platform, to represent the voice of local public social services. The first meeting in 2022 focused on disability policy actions of the upcoming Czech EU presidency in the second half of the year, EU funding support for community-based services and the EU disability card initiative.
Czech EU presidencies’ disability policy actions
The Disability Platform brings together the European Commission, EU Member States and civil society organisations to facilitate the implementation of disability policies such as the EU Disability Rights Strategy. In this context, the Czech government outlined its initiatives in the framework of its upcoming presidency of the European Union including a conference on the European Child Guarantee to measure how child poverty is being addressed, and a conference on supporting the integration of people with disabilities into the labour market. Based on its expertise on active inclusion and child support ESN aims to actively contribute to both events.
Funding community-based services and de-institutionalisation
Through its participation in the platform, ESN will monitor and promote EU policies supporting community-based services. In this matter, the European Commission presented how disability rights and community-based care are streamlined in EU funding. For instance, national governments implementing the European Social Fund+ should include measures for the shift from institutional to community-based care in their national programmes for social inclusion and poverty reduction. Provision of community and family-based services and human capacity focused on the development of community-based social services should be prioritised (supported by ESF+), ahead of infrastructure developments supported by the European Regional Development Fund.
Developing EU Funding Programmes in Partnership with Disability Organisations
The Commission reminded participants of the partnership principle that requires managing authorities to involve relevant bodies from civil society, such as organisations representing people with disabilities when designing EU funding programmes. ESN promotes the partnership principle and has also recently joined the European Community of Practice on Partnership (ECoPP) to contribute to the exchange of best practices from national and regional authorities involved in EU funding for social inclusion.
Towards a European Disability Card
The Commission also presented progress on the development of a European Disability Card to be to be ready for use across the EU by the end of 2023. Currently national governments to not mutually recognize disability cards, leading to difficulties when people with disabilities travel across the EU.
A European resource centre for an ‘AccessibleEU’
Finally, the Commission will create the AccessibleEU resource centre this year, bringing together national authorities responsible for implementing accessibility rules with experts and professionals from all areas of accessibility, providing the possibility to share good practices across sectors. The centre will be open to authorities, associations, universities, companies and civil society organizations promoting accessibility.
ESN hopes that the Disability Platform will become an additional channel of engagement with the EU and national governments to shape disability policies, specifically when it comes to the development of care and support services in the community. In liaison with organisations like ESN, the platform should play a key role in assessing the use of EU funds for the development of social inclusion programmes for people with disabilities in the community.
