The European Network on Independent Living – ENIL welcomes the new Guidance on independent living and inclusion in the community of persons with disabilities in the context of EU funding, which was published on 20 November 2024 as a Commission Notice. This Guidance was one of the flagship initiatives of the European Disability Rights Strategy 2021 – 2030.
The document contains many elements which are very positive:
- The Guidance gives a clear recommendation to Member State authorities to use the EU funds (such as the European Social Fund+, the European Regional Development Fund and the Recovery and Resilience Facility) to invest in services crucial for Independent Living. The document does not foresee the option of transitional any other spending on institutions and advises Member States funds should not be used for this purpose.
- Authorities working with EU funds are being asked to adopt deinstitutionalisation strategies and fund for example personal assistance, personal budgets, accesslble housing, accessible mainstream services, peer support, Centres for Independent Living, access to social services, social assistance, healthcare and community mental health services, employment and many others.
- Authorities are being asked to involve organisations representing disabled people at every step of the way.
- The Guidance contains definitions of Independent Living, deinstitutionalisation strategies, personal assistance, personal budgets, peer support and other terms which reference the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, General Comment No 5 and the Guidelines on deinstitutionalisation, including in Emergencies.
- The Guidance warns against replacing large institutions with smaller settings, which are still institutions (such as group homes). It also does not suggest Member States should build day care centres, but encourages them to invest in inclusive education.
- The Guidance is not just relevant to EU countries, but all countries in Europe and around the world which benefit from EU funds. Therefore, it should ensure that funding instruments such as Pre-Accession Funding, the Ukraine Facility and other are used to support the right to independent living.
We particularly welcome the fact that the European Commission has taken ENIL’s input, provided as a member of the Disability Platform sub-group on Independent Living, and of disabled people´s organisations, into account when drafting the Guidance.
Looking to the future
For ENIL, it is crucial to highlight that the adoption of Guidance to Member States on Independent Living and inclusion in the community must not be the end of a process but the beginning.
We would like to see the European Commission start an extensive awareness raising process. While the Guidance is not legally binding, all stakeholders, including other Commission services and public authorities (especially the Managing Authorities for EU funds) must be strongly encouraged to follow the recommendations of the document.
We encourage the European Commission to insist on the compliance with the Guidance, when the Commission is monitoring spending under the current EU Funds programming period (2021 – 2027), as well as when the new Operational Programmes, for the upcoming period will be negotiated and adopted.
In the context of the complaint procedure against the misuse of funds, the Guidance needs to be used to evaluate projects.
All the staff working on projects that affect and are relevant to disabled people, including projects for the general population (in the area of education, transport, housing etc.), need to be trained in understanding and applying the Guidance. We recommend to closely involve ENIL, our members and other disabled people’s organisations with expertise in the right to Independent Living in such trainings.
ENIL believes that further action on the EU level is warranted to guarantee disabled people can enjoy their right to Independent Living.
This Guidance is an important step in this direction and ENIL is ready to be a partner to the European Commission in making sure it is understood and applied in practice.
You can download the Guidance here: https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=89&furtherNews=yes&newsId=10919
