DFI's EU Election Manifesto 2019
Issued on March 13 2019
13.5% of people in Ireland have a disability.
Each of these 643,131 people have friends and family.
There are 80 million persons with disabilities in the EU.
Can you afford to ignore disability issues?
If elected, you will have power to shape the future of the EU. Let’s make it an EU that prioritises its peoples. An EU where rights and freedoms are a reality for everyone; an EU for people with disabilities.
In 2010, the EU committed to reduce the number of people at risk of poverty by 2020. But the number of people at risk has actually increased.[1] And in Ireland and across the EU, people with disabilities are even more at risk of poverty than the general population.[2]
Does this seem fair to you? Is this the EU you want for your constituents?
We call on you to commit to use your power to improve the lives of people with disabilities:
- Make products, services and infrastructure accessible to people with disabilities and eliminate discrimination:
Members of the European Parliament are part of the legislative system. They represent their constituents, including constituents with disabilities and those supporting them.
- Join the Disability Intergroup of the European Parliament and work together with the disability movement to push for decent standards and laws that improve the lives of people with disabilities.
- Consider the implications of all proposed legislation on the lives of persons with disabilities.
- Pass the European Accessibility Act.
- Exercise your powers of oversight over the Commission and the Council to ensure that they are implementing the laws, policies and agendas which can improve the lives of people with disabilities, such as:
- the European Accessibility Act,
- the Web Accessibility Directive, and
- the European Pillar of Social Rights.
- Invest in people with disabilities:
The Parliament, along with the Council of the European Union is the EU's budgetary authority. This decides the EU’s expenditures and revenues.
- Safeguard budgeting in the Multi-Annual Financial Framework and set priorities in the EU Semester Process for initiatives that strengthen human rights, equality, inclusion and accessibility.
- Strengthen the European Pillar of Social Rights:
o Establish a social protection floor to ensure to all persons with disabilities and their families an adequate and dignified standard of living.
o Invest in inclusive education, training and employment initiatives for people with disabilities.
- Support community based disability services. These are needed to end segregated and institutionalised living for people with disabilities.
The EU has been a vital and positive force in improving the rights and quality of life for people with disabilities. The EU has committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. These cannot be achieved without also implementing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in all areas of EU competency, which is part of the legal framework of the EU.
Will you commit to people with disabilities?
[1] European Commission, (2017) Reflection Paper on the Social Dimension of Europe https://bit.ly/2q6MSyp.
[2] Across the EU in 2016, about 30.1% of people with disabilities were at risk of poverty or social exclusion compared to 20.9% of people without disabilities (Age: 16+, EU-SILC UDB, 2016). In Ireland in 2017, 35.4% of people with disabilities were at risk of poverty compared with 15.7% of the general population of Ireland. This means that people are living below the poverty line, on €12,521 per annum or less (CSO SILC, 2017 at: https://bit.ly/2IIGE1V).