First meeting of the ENIL Task Force on Independent Living

When: 25^th of February 2025, 11:00 – 12:30 CET

Where: Online, Zoom  

Personal assistance is a key service to give disabled people the support they need. However, to live independently it is not enough. Personal budgets allow disabled people to purchase personal assistance in self-determination and in some countries also other services which they might require.

We know that personal budgets are not available in many places. Where they are available, the quality is often not good. For example, in the Belgium region Flanders there is a waiting list of up to 20 years.

EU wide coordination could help making personal budgets of high quality available everywhere. We want to encourage legislative activity by producing a draft directive. To figure out how to reach this goal, we will produce a Roadmap on Independent Living this year.

Our Task Force on Independent Living will work towards this objective. During the first meeting, we will first of all hear testimonies from disabled people on why they need the personal budget. Second, personal budget expert Dr. Simon Duffy will give as an introduction to the topic.

11:00 – 11:10	Welcome and Introduction                                          Florian Sanden
Why do we need the personal budget? Disabled people give testimony
11:10 – 11:30	Andrea Ficarelli Suela Lala
Main presentation
11:30 – 12:00	Personal budgets: An introduction   Dr Simon Duffy
12:00 – 12:30	Questions and Discussion   Why do you want/do not want the personal budget?