News

The Centre for Independent Living Sofia (CIL Sofia), the European Network on Independent Living (ENIL) and the European Disability Forum (EDF) are organising a conference on investing in Independent Living, to encourage Bulgaria and other Member States to redirect funding from ‘special services’ towards individualised support and mainstream options that facilitate social inclusion and active…

ENIL’s 2017 Annual Report is out! The Annual Report seeks to provide an overview of ENIL’s activities and achievements last year. It looks at the extent to which the organisation has reached its external and internal objectives, and sets out the main activities under the following priority areas: awareness raising, influencing policy and legislation, building…

The Independent Living Insitute, founded in 1993 by Adolf Ratzka, is a policy evaluation and policy formulation center based in Stockholm. At the moment, ILI is implementing two main projects: Law as a Tool for Social Change, and Disabled Refugees Welcome. Law as a Tool for Social Change The aim of the Law as a…

Our Advocacy Officer Frank Sioen and EVS volunteer Miriam Graute represented ENIL at the ESF (European Social Fund) Thematic Network on Partnership meeting in Berlin, on the 14thand 15thMay. ENIL is active in two ESF Thematic Networks: on Partnership and Social Inclusion. These groups meet regularly and seek to improve how the European Social Fund is…

On the 13th of April, ENIL member Eddy Schelfhout travelled through Belgium with  Dr. Alexander Vogt, the transport advisor of European Parliament Vice President, MEP Boguslav Liberadzki.  In this article, you will find Eddy’s account of the trip and the different obstacles they encountered. This summary was also distributed at a European Parliament debate on…

ENIL continues its campaign activities and is monitoring issues related to the use of European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) in several Member States: Hungary, Slovenia, France, Portugal and Romania. This involves working together with national NGOs and with representatives of the European Commission (DG EMPL and DG REGIO). New countries are being added…

Now in its 5th year, the European Independent Living Day is celebrated by disabled people, their families and friends across Europe. It is an opportunity to raise awareness about the right of all disabled people to live independently and to be included in the community, the many barriers disabled people face in their everyday lives…

May 5th is very soon upon us and we would like to remind you of how you can get involved and express our thanks to all those who have let us know about events they are organising! A real buzz is building, with exciting things happening from Norway to Montenegro, from Portugal to Lithuania. The…

ENIL has been made aware of worrying developments in the Netherlands, whereby disabled people will in some cases be paid below the minimum wage. In this article, Frieda Dijkhof provides more information about the situation in her country. Yesterday, I was cycling home from the train station, having just returned from a trip to our…

On 20 April, ENIL sent an Open letter to the Croatian Minister of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy Ms. Neda Murganic, in order to raise our concerns about the current administration’s reluctance to continue the process of transition from institutional care to living in the community. The letter followed our participation in an event…

On the 12th and 13th of April, ENIL attended the European Expert and Stakeholder Meeting to Provide Input for the 9th Session of the Open-ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWGA). This seminar on the Human Rights of Older Persons was co-hosted by Age Platform Europe and the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human…

In cooperation with our French members and with the support of MEP Pascal Durand, ENIL helped organise a conference earlier this month to raise awareness about the situation of disabled people and advocate for the right to independent living in France. Last year, France was visited by the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of…

On 23 – 26 July, the Ninth Working Session of the Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWGA) will take place at the UN headquarters in New York. OEWGA was established by the UN General Assembly in 2010, in order to look at the existing international framework on the human rights of older persons and identify…

The European Independent Living Day on the 5th May is once again upon us! This year’s theme is ”Barriers to Independent Living”.

To mark this year’s 5th May – the European Independent Living Day, the European Network on Independent Living (ENIL) is organising a screening of “Defiant Lives”, a documentary on the history of the Independent Living movement.

On 16th March, the European Network on Independent Living (ENIL) took part in a roundtable in the Croatian Parliament, organised by Platform 112 and hosted by the Member of Parliament Bojan Glavašević. Platform 112 is a coalition of civil society organisations – among them the Association for Self-Advocacy – focused on promoting the rule of law.

Towards the end of last year, ENIL, in cooperation with Nic Crosby (GatherBuildWork), decided to relaunch and reinvent the European Coalition for Community Living (ECCL), as an open platform and a resource for supporting independent living and the closure of institutions for disabled people.

Ten characteristics of personal assistance that received the highest scores (given in brackets) in a recent survey done by the European Network on Independent Living (ENIL).

The European Network on Independent Living (ENIL) has launched its Briefing on EU Funds and Independent Living on 8th March at the European Parliament. The event was hosted by MEPs Miram Dalli, Jana Zitnanska, Julie Ward and Pascal Durand.

We are introducing our second EVS volunteer, 28-year-old Lauri Heikkinen from Finland.