On 5 May, we will be celebrating the European Independent Living Day! For this occasion, we are organising an event from 10:30 to 12:30 CET to launch our second survey on Independent Living. We will present good practices on personal assistance from around Europe.
Access to Independent Living and Personal Assistance across Europe – short discussion with respondents to the survey
What are the good practices we identified through the Independent Living Survey? What are the main changes that would need to happen in your country, for the Personal Assistance system/scheme to better support the right to Independent Living, and be in line with the CRPD? What additional information do we need to collect, if any?
Agenda
Moderated by Ines Bulic Cojocariu, Deputy Director, ENIL
| 10:30-10:40 | Welcome and opening of the webinar: Jamie Bolling, ENIL Co-Chair |
| 10:40-10:50 | Main findings of the 2nd Independent Living Survey, with a focus on Personal Assistance. Florian Senden Policy Coordinator, Nina Portolan, ENIL Youth Network member |
| 10:50-11:00 | Germany – Uwe Frevert Interessenvertretung Selbstbestimmt Leben |
| 11:00-11:10 | Malta – Marthese Mugliette |
| 11:10 – 11:20 | Poland – Lukasz Orylski |
| 11:20-11:30 Break |
Good practice examples
| 11:30 – 11:40 | Martine Eliasson ULOBA, Norway |
| 11:50 – 12:00 | Representative of STIL, Sweden |
| 12:00 – 12:10 | Elena Pecaric YHD, Slovenia |
Reactions to the survey
| 12:10 – 12:20 | Ms Olga Martinez de Briones, European Commission, Policy Officer Unit D3 Disability and Inclusion |
| 12:20- 12:30 | Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Anne-Sophie Pelletier |
| 12:40 – 12:50 | Question and Answer session |
| 12:50 – 13:00 | Conclusions and closure of the event – Nadia Hadad, ENIL Co-chair |
Register here to take part in this event.
Background information
The aim of the Independent Living Survey, launched by the European Network on Independent Living (ENIL) in June 2020, was to gather data that would allow us to establish to what extent disabled people in Europe had access to the right to live independently and to be included in the community. The survey was open until the end of September, and targeted disabled people and organisations of disabled people in the Council of Europe area. It was available in English, French and German.
The Independent Living Survey followed Personal Assistance tables, published by ENIL in 2013 and 2015, and has drawn heavily on the PA Checklist – A Tool for Assessing Personal Assistance Schemes, published in 2019. It included additional questions relating to implementation of Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The survey consisted of two sections: a general section on Independent Living, and detailed information about the personal assistance scheme/policy in a particular country or region.
The information received through the online survey was used to draft 44 country sheets, with general information on Independent Living and a description of the personal assistance scheme/policy, where such exists. These are accompanied by a summary of the findings, in the Independent Living Report.
