European Independent Living Day – 5 May 2026
Our lives, our choices: A call for Independent Living across Europe!
Brussels / Europe – On 5 May 2026, disabled people and allies across Europe are marking European Independent Living Day with a clear and uncompromising message to the European Union and national governments: We do not need more strategies! We need to enforce rights, end segregation and put all disabled people in control of our lives!
Across the EU, around 90 million people (approx. one in four people) have some sort of impairment. Yet millions remain excluded from basic rights, including the ability to live independently and be part of our communities.
Despite years of strategies, resolutions and funding programmes, disabled people across the EU are still being segregated, institutionalised and denied control over our own lives. The right to Independent Living, guaranteed under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD), remains systematically violated.
The European Network on Independent Living (ENIL), together with our members and allies across Europe, is calling out the EU’s ongoing failure to turn rights into reality.
Independent living is not optional. It is a fundamental human right, and it is being denied every day across the European Union.
A systemic failure affecting millions
The scale of exclusion is undeniable, according to EU data:
- At least 1.4 million people in Europe still live in institutions, with numbers increasing rather than decreasing…
- Disabled people are significantly more likely to live in poverty or social exclusion (28.4%) compared to non-disabled people
- Only about half of disabled people are employed, compared to around three-quarters of non-disabled people
- Freedom of Movement, is only possible in paper, but not in reality to millions of disabled people
These are not isolated failures. They are the result of systemic policies that continue to prioritise control, segregation and underinvestment in community-based support.
Legal capacity: taking back control!
This year, we decided to dedicate the European Independent Living Day to the urgent need to recognise legal capacity, the right of disabled people to make decisions about our own lives.
Across Europe, many disabled people are still placed under guardianship or similar regimes that strip us of our decision-making power. We cannot vote, we cannot make a family, we cannot decide about our lives. This makes Independent Living impossible and violates our fundamental rights.
Despite clear obligations under the UN CRPD, progress remains slow and inconsistent, with some countries even showing signs of regression.
EU funding still supports segregation
While the EU claims to support inclusion, public funds continue to be used to maintain or even renovate institutional care systems in several member states (like this case in Brussels recently).
This contradiction lies at the heart of the problem. The EU cannot claim to stand for human rights while continuing to fund segregation (be it institutions, special schools or segregated workshops), we argue.
Our demands to the European Union and to National Governments
Disabled people and our allies are demanding urgent and concrete action:
- End the institutionalisation of disabled people across the EU
- Guarantee legal capacity for all, replacing guardianship with supported decision-making
- Stop EU funding for institutions immediately and redirect resources to community-based, user-led support like personal assistance
- Ensure full implementation of Article 19 UN CRPD and the General Comment number 5 across all European and national policies and funding instruments
- Put disabled people at the centre of decision-making, not as stakeholders, but as leaders
A growing movement across Europe
European Independent Living Day is not symbolic. It is a day of resistance, visibility and mobilisation. It is a day to be proud, strong and visible. Across Europe, disabled people are organising actions, speaking out and demanding systemic change.
The message from across Europe is clear: no more excuses.
European Network on Independent Living (ENIL)
For media inquiries, interviews or further information please contact Kamil Goungor, ENIL’s Policy and Movement Support Coordinator at: kamil.goungor@enil.eu
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About the European Network on Independent Living:
The European Network on Independent Living (ENIL) is a disabled-led, cross-disability network of disabled people and their representative organisations. ENIL promotes the right to independent living, as set out in Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), its General Comments and the Guidelines on deinstitutionalisation, including in emergencies. ENIL’s work is guided by the CRPD and the Independent Living principles, enshrined in the Independent Living Pillars. ENIL is active at the European level, and internationally, through cooperation with Centres for Independent Living from around the globe. ENIL’s actions and activities are based on the social and the human rights models of disability, and on the principles of inclusive equality, self-determination, solidarity and intersectionality.
