7th of June 2023
Today ENIL Policy Coordinator Florian Sanden met with Portuguese Member of the European Parliament (MEP) José Gusmao of the Left Group. The meeting took place to discuss Parliaments’ involvement in shaping the Guidance to Member States on Independent Living and Inclusion in the Community, the European Commission will bring out at the end of the year.
The Commission Guidance on Independent Living is one of the flagship initiatives within the European Strategy on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (ESRPDs 2021-2030). Since for ENIL this is one of the most important policy activities of the current ESRPDs, we prepared an in-depth proposal on what should be in it. Among others we recommend that authorities finally produce data on the number of disabled people living in institutions. Crucially, we want an expansion of support services to make institutions obsolete but also support disabled people not at risk of institutionalization. These services are most importantly personal assistance but also forms of peer support such as peer counselling, where disabled people can go to advisory offices and get help in navigating support services.
We presented our Proposal in the European Parliament on the 4th of May. Several MEPs and officials of the European Commission took part in the meeting. The European Commission started exploring options on what to say in their Guidance already in 2022. Despite this long process it is unknown and uncertain which recommendations will be given to Member States on how to advance Independent Living. Remarks coming from Commission officials, including Commissioner for Equality Dalli, are really vague and don´t contain clear hints. Since the EUs´ executive tries really hard to avoid stepping on the toes of Member States in the policy area of Disability, the prognosis is not good.
To achieve a helpful Guidance document, the support of all key actors is important. In the meeting at the Parliament, MEP Gusmao expressed his support for the objective to make progress when it comes to Independent Living. Several options on how to involve the European Parliament in the process were discussed, including holding a plenary debate, organizing a meeting with Commissioner Dalli or adopting a resolution. It was agreed to start the process by exchanging views with MEPs within the Disability Intergroup. MEP Gusmao and ENIL will continue cooperating to secure a strong Independent Living Guidance to Member States.
