ENIL’s “EU Funds for Our Rights” Campaign continues with its activities of looking into the use of EU Funds for Independent Living.
This month, on 1st – 2nd October, our Campaign Coordinator Natasa Kokic spoke at the training “Disability-related Financial Instruments in light of EU Law and the UNCRPD”, organised by the European Academy of Law. The training focused on different financial instruments intended for persons with disabilities, their implementation and monitoring in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
On 23rd October, Natasa spoke at the EESC Public hearing on “MFF & cohesion policy: how to better use EU funds for persons with disabilities in the new financial framework. Both events were an opportunity to explain ENIL’s concerns in relation to the use of European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) in the current programming period, but also to present recommendations on how to prevent the misuse of funds for the building or renovation of institutions.
Finally, we recently met with DG Employment and DG Regio’s desk officers for Romania, and we are in regular contact with desk officers responsible for the following countries: Portugal, Romania, Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia. These are the countries where we detected misuse of ESI Funds, with investments into institutional care facilities, or plans to do so in the future.
If you would like to take part in our Campaign, please contact the Campaign Coordinator Natasa Kokic at natasa.kokic@enil.eu.
Please like our Facebook page and report any cases where you believe ESI Funds are not used to support independent living, but to maintain institutional care.
