Advancing the National Disability Strategy: Building on Comparative and International Innovation Centre for Disability Law and Policy National University of Ireland, Galway 10 December 2010 Involvement of Persons with disabilities in the EU -­‐ Simona Giarratano European Disability Forum Thanks to the presentations of this first session, we have now an overview of the pathways followed in advancing the UN CRPD, and it is my pleasure to continue by adding to the puzzle the piece of what happens at the level of the European Union, on behalf of the European Disability Forum. As you know the EDF represents 80 million citizens with disabilities in Europe, through national federations of disabled people and families in 32 countries and over 50 European organisations representing a specific disability constituency. We have had an important role in the negotiations and development of the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, according to the principle nothing about us without us and we still play a key role, along with all the other actors in the monitoring and implementation of it. In my contribution, I will address the issue of participation of persons with disabilities in the process of developing and implementing the European Disability Strategy and the work undertaken on cross-­‐cutting issues in more general policy frameworks. When the Convention was negotiated, the principle nothing about us without us was put in practice, now in the national and regional implementation this seems more difficult. We need to work cooperatively if we want national strategies to be legitimate, if we want them to work. 1 It is critical to put persons with disabilities through their organizations at the center of the policy development and monitoring and EDF welcomes all the opportunities given at EU level by all the competent institutions, such as the Commission, the Council and the Parliament, to actively contribute to the development of the EU disability strategy. EDF took a dual approach in giving its contributions: we proactively contacted different relevant actors and decision-­‐makers to propose and bring our messages on the political pipeline and to ask for mainstreaming of disability in the broader political framework; at the same time, we also replied to the different consultation procedures launched and participated in meetings of already established information bodies and work forums. How we were involved? EDF carried out a set of actions in favor of a European Disability Pact that called for a commitment of Member States and European Communities to a coordinated and sustainable disability policy at EU and national level. The Disability Pact Campaign has been approved during our General Assembly in 2009 and officially launched at the European Parliament Intergroup on Disability. Following this event, EDF had bilateral meetings with the President of the European Union, the Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities and of course an ongoing constructive dialogue with the Disability Unit of the European Commission. In the meantime, EDF answered public consultations launched by the Commission on both the Disability Strategy and the general EU 2020 Strategy for growth and jobs. We attended the meetings of the high level group on disability and commented on the different draft proposals, suggesting actions to be taken at national and European level. Following up from these consultations, we edited two position papers: one on the disability strategy and one on how to mainstream disability in the EU 2020 Strategy for growth and jobs. Under the Spanish Presidency of the EU, we have been invited to participate to the political debate on the strategy during the ministerial conference and related meeting in Zaragoza and last June we attended a meeting with the 2 representatives of the TRIO, the European Commission and EDF to reconcile the idea of the Pact with the upcoming Disability Strategy. On the 15 November, the Communication of the Commission on the European Disability Strategy was adopted and we were glad to see that most of EDF proposals were taken on board and integrated in the concrete list of actions set by the European Commission to implement it. The whole story, I just told you it might seem light a smooth journey, but as you can easily imagine it was a long process, that required intense work, and it was possible thanks to the competence and experiences of our members and thanks to the constructive dialogue with the Disability Unit. Yet, a lot of work needs still to be done to deliver better results towards the rights enshrines by the UN CRPD and we need to establish the same constructive dialogue with other services of the European Institutions. Moreover, with regards to art.33 of the UN CRPD, now that the ratification of by the EU is getting closer, we need to have concrete actions to establish coordination mechanisms, as soon as possible, and we don’t see them mentioned in the list of actions of the European Strategy. It is at this aim, that EDF is engaged in a campaign for the creation of the ‘European Disability Committee’ to upgrade the High level group on disability from a the information body that is now to a stronger organism, where Members States, European Commission, persons with disabilities would have the possibility to closely cooperate and have a real impact in the implementation of the UN CRPD. 3