The EU under UN-Review

In 2011, the European Union acceded to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD). It was the first time a supranational organisation joined an international human rights treaty. In times where liberal and social values are threatened, this should fill us with pride, but…

State parties have to submit regular reviews to assess if they are fulfilling their obligations under the Convention. From the 11th to the 12th March, representatives of the EU were invited to appear in front of the UN’s CRPD implementation watchdog, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and justify their actions.

ENIL provided input to the review process which highlighted all the areas in which the EU needs to improve its actions. The Committee took our input very seriously showing great respect for the expertise of a disabled people’s organisation. 

For three hours per day, the members of the CPRD Committee asked detailed and challenging questions about many of the 50 articles of the Convention. 

The Committee agreed with many of the criticisms we as ENIL are holding. Throughout Europe, at least 1,4 million disabled people are forced to live in nursing homes or psychiatric hospitals and can not get out, because the law obliges them to live there or because there are no alternatives. 

We are following the case of Alex,¹ a young autistic man, who has been in three institutions throughout his life and was severely abused in all of them. At the age of 16, he was brought to a group home by his father and had to stay there for two years. This time destabilised him psychologically. After trying to apply for person-centered services for a year without success, he tried to kill himself. The only way to end the following compulsory eight months stay in a psychiatric hospital was for him to agree to move into a group home. In all three facilities he was medicated by force. In the group home where he is staying now a care assistant is threatening “to punch his kidneys”. It is very hard for autistic people to overcome trauma. We are not sure he will ever recover from these experiences. For now, there is no solution in sight to end his suffering. 

Institutions or sheltered workshops are kept alive through hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of tax euros per year.² Those financial means are coming from EU Funds and national budgets, money which is then not available for the financing of personal budgets and personal assistance. The EU has the power to change the financial flows but so far is refusing to use this power. 

ENIL is trying to change the flow of financial resources, away from abusive and segregationist solutions like institutions and sheltered workshops and to person-centred services like personal budgets and personal assistance. We do this by pushing for change in the way EU Funds are being used and also the way national authorities subsidise social services.

During the dialogue, several Committee members asked the EU delegation what their plans are to ensure EU funds are no longer used to finance institutions. While the EU referred to the existing legislation and its mechanisms to prevent misuse, we know this is not enough. At the moment, the main mechanism is called the horizontal enabling condition on implementation of the UNCRPD. This means that if EU Member States do not respect the UNCRPD, they lose access to EU funds. 

But as the Committee member Markus Schefer pointed out, “It is the Member states that are monitoring their own adherence to the CRPD (when using EU funds). Not a method that seems particularly effective.” Indeed, ENIL looked into this question in the past, and found that Member states provide the information to the Commission on whether or not they are implementing the UNCRPD, without any independent organisations contrasting the information. More information is available in our shadow report.³

In addition, the EU delegation mentioned that they are currently spending 1.73 billion euros on community-based services; a number that, according to the delegation, does not include institutions and small group homes. ENIL and our partners looked into this question and we could not find any reports that support this claim. We found that for the current EU budget, the money has not been allocated yet, and all the numbers are estimations. We have found numerous cases of investments into institutions and small group homes in the previous funding period, so we can likely expect that this will continue happening.

At the moment, an EU regulation which could change the way measures to support the labour market inclusion of disabled citizens are financially supported is up for negotiation. It is called the General Block Exemption Regulation. It allows the financing of sustainable instruments, like personal assistance at work or changes to the built environment. However, it also permits countries to finance sheltered employment. Sheltered employment does not help to integrate disabled citizens into regular work. It is exploitative and used to keep people away from the open labour market. ENIL is advocating for the removal of this option. 

On the 12th March, during the dialogue with the European Union, the Committee stated that sheltered employment is not in line with the Convention and that the option of financing this instrument goes against the UN CRPD. The EU has to make sure the rules on state aid are in line with the Convention. 

The EU delegation had undertaken great efforts to be prepared. It shows that they took the review seriously. Nevertheless, on the topic of state aid, among others, the delegation could not provide enough information during the review. A written response which was submitted after the session highlighted the line the EU is maintaining so far.⁴ That state aid law is there to regulate competition only. The Committee has clearly stated that this argument is invalid and it also contradicts the EU’s own jurisprudence on the matter. 

The fact that the CRPD Committee was supporting our positions during the review is very important for our lobby work. In addition to making sure that EU Funds are used to support independent living, ENIL will continue our focus on the use of state aid,to change which services are being funded. This is important because for the rich countries, regions and cities in the EU, the EU Funds are not significant for the financing of disability services. Germany, Sweden or France finance institutions and sheltered employment from their own money. To stop this, we need to tackle legislation on state aid at the EU level. We will work on this long-term. Opposing the financing of sheltered employment is only the beginning. We will soon start addressing the subsidies given to institutions for disabled people and we will not stop until we see a change. In addition, we will add public procurement to our topics. 

In April the CRPD will publish its Concluding Observations which form the final result of the state review process. The Committee will comment on many of the articles of the Convention and cover important issues like legal capacity, the freedom of movement or anti discrimination legislation. 

Through the review process it became clear that the EU needs to do more to live up to the objectives is has set for itself. Having the UN CRPD Committee focusing on those crucial issues is an important step in the right direction, but it is not enough. We are told all the time that “there is no competence” or “there is no money”. In addition, the EU is proposing many non-legislative initiatives all the time. The problem is that there is no political will and societal support to really change the way things are. Prejudices and ableist views continue to dominate the discussion. Many people believe that disabled people do not deserve anything better. To make a change we must become much more visible in public and political life. For example, we need more disabled politicians. We as disabled people need to enter political parties and seek positions of leadership. We are calling on you to form organisations, to be active in your local communities and to form or enter political parties. 

1. Name changed to protect the person’s identity. ↩︎
2. https://enil.eu/reforming-eu-state-aid-law-to-restrict-subsidies-to-sheltered-workshops/ ↩︎
3. https://enil.eu/enil-submits-its-updated-shadow-report-on-the-eu-to-the-crpd-committee/ ↩︎
4. https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2FCRPD%2FAIS%2FEUR%2F62600&Lang=en ↩︎

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