BULLETIN ON ACTIONS CARRIED OUT IN
THE FRAMEWORK OF THE EUROPEAN
INSTITUTIONS
(APRIL-JUNE 2013)
July 2013
CONTENTS
1. NON-DISCRIMINATION
2. INFORMATION SOCIETY
3. TRANSPORT
4. OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST
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1. NON-DISCRIMINATION
1.1
ACTIONS
a) WIPO adopts the Treaty which will guarantee the access to books for people
with visual disabilities
On 27 June, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) concluded a historic
treaty on copyright for blind people and people who have difficulties to access
conventional printed material.
This is the first treaty on intellectual property which focuses on public interest, instead
of the interests of right holders; this puts an end to almost five years of very hard
negotiations during which the World Blind Union has been constantly supported by
EBU, with the cooperation from other NGOs.
At present, copyright law falls under national jurisdiction, which prevents blind
organizations from sharing books with other countries; this involves an unnecessary
duplication of book production in accessible formats.
What does this mean for people with visual disabilities and other people facing
difficulties to access conventional print? Currently, only 5% of all published books in
developed countries are available in accessible formats, such as Braille, large print and
audio; in the case of developing countries the percentage drops to less than 1%.
The treaty revolves around a central article authorizing organizations and libraries of
people with visual disabilities to share their accessible book collections with other
communities around the world speaking the same language. For example, Spain and
Argentina will be able to share their works, which together amount to over 150,000
titles, with other Latin American countries, as soon as governments from recipient
countries ratify and implement the treaty. In the same way, it will be possible to share
book collections in French, Arabic, Chinese, etc. with communities speaking those
languages and living in another country; at present these communities are unable to
borrow or buy legally accessible books from their country of origin.
The Treaty will come into force once it has been ratified by at least twenty WIPO
Member States.
The final text of the Treaty, press releases and videos are available on the official
WIPO site: http://www.wipo.int/portal/index.html.en
b) An illness may be assimilated to disability according to the Court of Justice of
the European Union
The Court of Justice of the European Union has passed a sentence upon request of a
Danish court judging the case of two people who were fired from their jobs due to their
prolonged sick leave.
A Danish trade union took the case to the national courts claiming that the two workers
had been discriminated on ground of their disability and that the company had not
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provide compensatory measures, for example the option to be eligible to a reduced
working day, as set in the Directive on Equal Treatment in Employment.
The sentence of the Court of Justice of the European Union on this case establishes
that a curable or incurable illness which entails a physical, mental or psychological
limitation may be understood as a disability. The Court of Justice further recalls that,
according to the Directive, employers have to adopt appropriate and reasonable
accommodation measures to enable a person with a disability to have access to,
participate in, or advance in employment. As a consequence, the national legislation
transposing the Directive has to follow these provisions. Nevertheless, it considers that
because of the wide discretion enjoyed by Member States in the field of social and
employment policies, it is for the national court to explore whether the national
legislator maintains a balance between the interests of the employer and those of the
worker.
The full judgement is available at
http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?doclang=EN&text=&pageIndex=0&
part=1&mode=DOC&docid=136161&occ=first&dir=&cid=356625
c) Working group in Austria on accessible and talking cash machines for people
with visual disabilities
A working group has been established in Austria under the coordination of the Austrian
Federation of People with Visual Disabilities, integrating also six banks, two ATM
manufacturers and two software developers.
The objective of this group is to produce a guide and a catalogue so that the adaptation
of ATM finally materializes into a national regulation.
The group coordinator, Ms. Doris Ossberger, has emphasised that the standardisation
of ATM operations will ensure that blind and visually impaired customers will be able to
use any cash dispenser without difficulty regardless of the bank or the location.
Further information is available at: http://www.blindenverband.at/en/home/680
d) Meeting of the Disability Intergroup in Strasbourg
A meeting of the Disability Intergroup took place on 18 April regarding the proposal for
a Directive on accessibility of public sector bodies' websites.
The meeting showed the broad support of the European Parliament towards this
proposal and the introduction of amendments to make it more ambitious. Concretely,
the majority of EP members present announced that they would suggest a broader
scope for the directive to include all websites providing a public service. Furthermore,
the opportunity offered by this measure to boost web accessibility market in Europe,
was also underlined.
Among the participants in this meeting were Jorgo Chatzimarkakis (ALDE, Germany),
as main speaker on the report, various shadow speakers such as Rafal Trzaskowski
(EPP, Poland), Vicente Garcés (S&D, Spain), Christian Engström (Greens, Sweden)
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and the opinion’s speaker from the Employment Committee, Tamas Deutsch (EPP,
Hungary). Mr. Ramón Sanmartín Sola, in representation of DG Communications
Networks, Content and Technology and Ms. Carlotta Besozzi, Director of the European
Disability Forum were also invited to the meeting.
Further information is available at: http://www.disabilityintergroup.eu/
e) UNICEF report on Children with Disabilities
The UNICEF report on the State of the World’s Children 2013 was presented on 30
May, it focused on children with disabilities.
The report hopes to increase the level of awareness on the situation of children with
disabilities and promotes mainstreaming of disability in European Union’s policies, both
within Europe and towards the rest of the world.
The report is available in different accessible formats at:
http://www.unicef.org/sowc2013/index.html
f) The European Commission paves the way for sign language project
The European Union announced on 6 June the approval of a new pilot project to
improve communications between the European institutions and the deaf and hard of
hearing.
The European Commission has worked closely with the European Parliament to get
the pilot project off the ground. Viviane Reding, Vice-President and Commissioner
responsible for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, has pointed out that
some citizens in the European Union still face obstacles to fully enjoy their rights to
participate in democratic life.
In the short term, the project aims, for example, at installing audio and video
technologies in EU institutions so that officials can communicate more easily with sign
language users. The pilot project covers both the technology solution and sign
language interpretation components of this endeavour.
In the longer term, the pilot project aims to help developing solutions for the nearly one
million deaf or hard of hearing citizens of all Member States using different sign
languages to access all EU institutions through direct communication
Further information
511_en.htm
is
available
at:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-
g) European political groups join forces to support persons with disabilities
On 5 June, the main political groups in the European Parliament announced strong
action to support the rights of persons with disabilities in Europe.
This announcement was made following a high level meeting between Joseph Daul,
Chairman of the EPP Group, Hannes Swoboda, President of the S&D Group, Anneli
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Jaatteenmaki, Vice-President of the ALDE Group, Rebecca Harms, co-President of the
Greens/EFA Group, Gabriele Zimmer, President of the GUE/NGL Group, and the
President of the European Disability Forum (EDF), Ioannis Vardakastanis.
They all signed a declaration to implement a series of initiatives aiming at ensuring the
full inclusion of persons with disabilities as well as the enforcement of their rights.
Concretely, the political groups in the Parliament have committed themselves to
implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and strengthen
its mainstreaming through the setting-up of a cross-committee; to present concrete
proposals aiming to protect persons with disabilities from the crisis; and to promote an
ambitious EU legislation on accessibility of goods and services starting with the support
of a legally binding European Accessibility Act.
Furthermore, the leaders of the political groups have confirmed that in view of the 2014
European elections, they will ensure the accessibility of their websites, documents and
information to persons with disabilities in order to guarantee their voting rights.
For his part, EDF President, Ioannis Vardakastanis, has valued very positively the
commitment of the political groups towards persons with disabilities, recalling that the
crisis makes it more imperative than ever for the European Parliament to protect the
human rights of European citizens, and especially of the most vulnerable ones. In this
context, he has wanted to stress that persons with disabilities are hit specially hard by
the austerity measures in Europe.
More information is available at:
http://www.edf-feph.org/Page_Generale.asp?DocID=13855&thebloc=32597
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2. INFORMATION SOCIETY
2.1
ACTIONS
a) Implementation of the audiovisual media services directive
On 22 May the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg approved a
resolution on the implementation of the audiovisual media services directive.
This resolution insists on the need to improve accessibility of audiovisual
communication services in order to guarantee the rights of people with disabilities. For
this, Member States are recalled that they should encourage media service providers
and manufacturers of support devices to make their audiovisual communication
services more accessible, particularly to people with disabilities, such as the hard of
hearing and the visually impaired.
Furthermore, in the resolution the Parliament requests to modify the directive in order
to include more binding language regarding accessibility conditions to be offered by
providers. Finally, it is asked to take into account people with disabilities when
launching public consultations on connected or hybrid television.
The adopted resolution is available at:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P7-TA2013-0215+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN
b) “World Braille Usage” Third Edition
This third edition of “World Braille Usage” includes 133 languages that have been
transcribed into 137 different Braille alphabet and punctuation codes, and represents
142 countries.
The project has been developed with the support from Perkins editors, the International
Council on English Braille, and the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically
Handicapped, and its objective is to document the current state of Braille around the
world.
Further information is available at: http://www.euroblind.org/news/nr/1797
The “World Braille Usage” publication is available at:
http://www.perkins.org/assets/downloads/worldbrailleusage/world-braille-usage-thirdedition.pdf
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3. TRANSPORT
3.1.
ACTIONS
a) Debate on air passenger rights proposal
On 29 May, a debate took place in the EP Commission on Transport on air passenger
rights proposal.
MEPs and airlines representatives and air passenger organizations dealt with various
matters. The most controversial ones were about compensation terms for stranded
passengers, new proposal of rules for overbooking, liability in the event of missed
connecting flights and the definition of "force majeur" exceptions.
Furthermore, Rapporteur Georges Bach (EPP, Luxembourg) and other MEPs said they
would consider carefully how to improve passenger’s rights in cases of airline
insolvency and how to introduce common minimum standards for hand luggage.
The Transport Committee is scheduled to vote on the amended text on 14 November.
Further information is available at:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pressroom/content/20130527IPR10537/html/Ai
r-passenger-rights-Commission-proposal-needs-serious-fine-tuning-say-MEPs
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4. OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST
a) European Access City Award
The European Commission has published additional information on the candidature
and selection process for the Access City Award 2014.
Additional information is available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/disabilities/award/index_en.htm
b) One Commissioner for each Member State
On 22 May, during the EU Summit of Heads of States in Brussels, European Union
leaders voted to continue the current system of ‘one Commissioner per country' in the
European Commission.
This rule was introduced in 2009 with the objective to boost the approval of the Treaty
by Ireland.
The agreement reached extends the current arrangement until the end of the next
Commission in 2019, or when the total number of Member States reaches 30.
Therefore, from 1 July, with the accession of Croatia, there will be 28 commissioners.
Further information is available at:
http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/2013/may/eu-summit-current-commission-sizeextended-to-2019/77330.aspx
-The end-
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