Social Structures
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Author: Delia Ferri – Co-Director of the ALL Institute, Department of Law, Maynooth University
At the end of this year, the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 (EDS), which has shaped European Union (EU) disability policies for the last decade, is coming to an end. The 3rd of December 2020, which marks the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, seems the most apt time to reflect on what EU policies have achieved, but also to look ahead to the forthcoming Strategy 2021-2030.
The EDS was released in 2010, almost concurrently with the ratification, by the EU, of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and was intended to support its implementation. The EDS has identified eight main areas for EU action (accessibility, participation, equality, employment, education and training, social protection, health, and external action), which “were selected on the basis of their potential to contribute to the overall objectives of the Strategy and of the UN Convention”. For each area, key EU commitments have been identified, including the enactment of new legislation or the implementation of existing provisions and the use of policies. Notably the EDS has also identified general and cross-cutting instruments to support the EU (and Member States’) actions. The recognition of awareness raising as an essential tool to “foster greater knowledge among people with disabilities of their rights and how to exercise them” reflects the obligations included in Article 8 CRPD. In a similar vein, the EDS has placed emphasis on the importance of data collection to support evidence-based policies, in line with what is prescribed by Article 31 CRPD, which obliges Parties to “undertake to collect appropriate information, including statistical and research data, to enable them to formulate and implement policies to give effect” to the CRPD. The unveiled EDS’s ambition of somewhat “transposing” the CRPD into the EU legal framework has not translated into steady advancements in the protection and promotion of disability rights.
In 2015, in its Concluding Observations (COs) on the EU’s Initial Report on the implementation of the CRPD, the CRPD Committee praised the EU only in relation to the area of external action, while it identified a number of gaps and issues in all other fields singled out by the EDS. Furthermore, the Committee did not consider the EDS comprehensive enough and recommended “the adoption of a strategy on the implementation of the Convention, with the allocation of a budget [and] a time frame for implementation” (para. 9 COs). The Commission’s first progress report on the implementation of the EDS, which was released in February 2017, while suggesting that progress had been achieved across all eight areas of action, reported that people with disabilities surveyed during the study found that their situation was still challenging, and the majority of people expressed dissatisfaction with the achievements during the first five years of the EDS. These data tally with findings from a 2015 report of Inclusion Europe which highlighted the extreme poverty, discrimination and social exclusion faced, in particular, by persons with intellectual disabilities. Beginning mid-2019, the Commission engaged in an appraisal of the overall effectiveness of the EDS in the past ten years. In July 2019, it launched an open public consultation. On the 20th November 2020, the Commission published a comprehensive evaluation of the EDS. That document gives a bitter-sweet picture. On the one hand, it suggests “there has been good progress since 2010 in the participation of persons with disabilities in society and economic life, in the promotion and protection of their rights”. On the other, it acknowledges that the EDS “through its eight areas and its four implementation instruments, covered part of the scope of the CRPD” and, taking into account the limited competences of the EU, stressed “the need for a broader view about national action and progress in the future”. It also acknowledges that the EDS and its effectiveness have been perceived differently across the EU. Another study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs, authored by Waddington and Broderick, highlights the shortcomings of the EDS and makes a wide series of recommendations in respect of post-2020 disability policies. Among those, the Study suggests the need for “greater alignment between the post-2020 Strategy and disability strategies at Member State level”.
Looking at the future of EU disability policies, alongside the further enhancement of participation of people with disabilities in shaping priorities and identifying actions, better coordination between the EU and its Member States is vital to achieving real progress. Problems linked to limited EU competences and governance fragmentation should be addressed by enhancing the use of policy cooperation tools such as the Open Method of Coordination, but also through other and possibly new governance tools.
Today, looking ahead to the future of EU disability policies means also reimagining the role of the EU in redressing the negative impact of COVID-19 on the rights of persons with disabilities and in counteracting the multiple dramatic ripple effects of the pandemic in a (hopefully soon) post-COVID world. In fact, the 3rd of December 2020, is like no other, because 2020 is a year like no other. The pandemic has made structural inequalities faced by people with disabilities drastically evident everywhere in Europe and globally. In a recent post, Broderick highlights that “people with disabilities and their families have faced substantial new challenges during the ongoing crisis, and the existing difficulties that they encounter in their everyday lives have been greatly magnified”. In a similar vein, Felix exposes a long series of abuses recorded throughout the past months, and condemns national responses to COVID-19 that have “left behind” persons with disabilities. The annual event hosted by the European Commission together with the European Disability Forum, which marks the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, has also focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on persons with disabilities. The challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic can create the contextual conditions for shifting towards a more integrated approach to EU disability policies and a closer collaboration with Member States. In shaping an effective disability inclusive COVID-19 response, the new EU Strategy post-2020 should also support disability mainstreaming in other key policies, first and foremost the recent efforts towards the creation of a European Health Union.