On 5th May, every year since 2014, we are celebrating the European Independent Living Day, together with our members and allies. Year by year, we were becoming louder and more visible across Europe (and beyond). We had the same expectations for 2020, however the COVID-19 pandemic came and changed everything, not only for us but…
We are only five days away from the 5th May, when we will be marking the 7th European Independent Living Day. This year’s theme is LIBERTY, which seems even more apt now that everyone’s liberty is restricted in some way due to the pandemic. Despite restrictions on movement, gatherings, protests and the social distancing rules,…
When people ask me how I started to work with disabled people’s organisations, my usual answer is that it was an accidental choice. As a skint university student of Hungarian literature and linguistics in Budapest in 1999, I needed a job so I ended up working as a part-time personal assistant to people with severe…
Today, a group of seven organisations of persons with disabilities and other organisations advocating for the rights of persons with disabilities sent an urgent appeal to ensure equal access to COVID-19 medical treatment for residents of Sasca Mică Centre and other institutions for persons with disabilities and older persons in Romania. On 21 April 2020,…
On 5th May, disabled people, friends and allies across Europe will be marking the 7th European Independent Living Day. This year’s theme, proposed by the European Network on Independent Living, is LIBERTY. One of the things we asked you, is to share with us personal stories of people deprived of liberty on account of being…
On 20 March, ENIL and CHA – Coordination Handicap et Autonomie (CHA) sent an Open Letter to the President of French Republic, Emmanuel Macron. In this letter, we express our concerns over the plan to create 1,000 more places in residential institutions for disabled people in France. This plan was announced by President Macron during…
On 29 January 2020, the European Commission published its 2020 workplan. ENIL has analysed it and decided to highlight some of the most promising initiatives in the area of social policy. Please read on for an overview of what to expect from the EU’s social front this and next year. Green Pillar? Remember the European…
The European Network on Independent Living is deeply concerned about the continued institutionalisation of disabled people in Hungary, and the Government’s plans to build new institutions. MEOSZ – the National Federation of Associations of Persons with Physical Disabilities, a member of ENIL, set out a list of current problems in the country, with regard to…
On 20th February, our Petition in relation the use of Structural Funds in Bulgaria was discussed by the Petitions (PETI) Committee in the European Parliament. The petition was submitted in 2018 by our member, the Centre for Independent Living (CIL) Sofia in Bulgaria, and has been supported by ENIL, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee and the…
Traditionally, Independent Living, Personal Assistance or even De-institutionalisation were not among the priorities of the governments and the “official” disability movement in Greece. Last years, these issues started to be slowly addressed, because of the pressure by Greek and international disabled Independent Living (IL) activists, as well as because of the UN Convention on the…
It is morning in the special residential home ‘Michel Chapuis’ near Lyon, brand new and run by the association OVE; it was opened only a year ago (9 years after France ratified the UN CRPD). Tom (modified name) is a young autistic man who was placed in this institution without being asked what he actually…
Time to celebrate or to take to the streets? 20 years since the closure of Sweden’s larger institutions for disabled people. It has been 20 years since Sweden’s deadline for the closure of country’s larger institutions, on January 1, 2000. People who have spent a short time or up to a whole lifetime, sometimes 70…
On 16th January, the European Expert Group on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care (EEG) marked 10 years of its work by organising a conference on deinstitutionalisation, supported by the European Commission. ENIL (with the European Coalition for Community Living) has been a member of the EEG since the very beginning, when it was…
Last week, Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli announced that a new Disability Equality Strategy will be put in place, replacing the one that expires in 2020. The work to shape the new strategy has begun and today, the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee (EMPL Committee) debated a draft resolution on the EU disability…
As we schedule our ‘out of office’ replies at the European Network on Independent Living and start counting down to the end of yet another year, I would like to briefly reflect on 2019 and what it meant for us. Firstly, we will remember this year by turning 30 and taking the first steps into…
On 2 December, the European Network on Independent Living, Disability Rights International (DRI) and the Validity Foundation organised an event in the European Parliament entitled ‘Group Homes – A Defensible Investment?’. The event was hosted by MEP Julie Ward (Socialists & Democrats) and took place in the framework of the European Disability and Development Week,…
In Brussels, 10 December 2019 – To mark the International Human Rights Day, the European Network on Independent Living – ENIL is launching its second Myth Buster, this time on “EU Funds and Independent Living”. Illustrated by our European Solidarity Corps volunteer, Hatiye Garip, and published as part of the “EU Funds for Our Rights”…
On Monday, the 2nd December, ENIL, Disability Rights International and the Validity Foundation are holding a roundtable on investments into group homes for children and adults with disabilities in Europe. The roundtable, hosted by Julie Ward MEP, is aimed primarily at Members of the European Parliament, who will have a chance to learn about research…
The Disability High Level Group held its second meeting on 23rd October in Brussels, bringing together representatives of the social welfare Ministries from the Member States, EU-level NGOs and the staff of the Disability Unit at DG Employment (at the European Commission). On the agenda was the CRPD implementation, the European Disability Strategy, the UN…
ENIL’s regional members’ meeting took place in Warsaw on 9 and 10 September. The meeting was organized in cooperation with our Polish member – the Independent Living Institute from Warsaw. The meeting provided an opportunity for our members (around 35 participants), from Belgium, Belarus, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Norway, Russia, Slovenia, and Sweden, to…
