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By Colin Low
President of the European Blind Union
Let me begin with a few thank-yous: First to the Europe for Citizens
Programme of the EUROPEAN Union (EU) for providing the funding for this
conference; second to Rodolfo Cattani and the Cabinet of the Liaison
Commission for all the thought and organisation which has gone into the
planning of the conference; and third to the National Council of the Blind
of Ireland (NCBI), especially its Chief Executive Officer Desmond Kenny and
Elaine Howlie for all their hospitality and hard work which has gone into
making the conference possible.
This is an important conference. It is the first major conference of our
current mandate. The title aptly sums up the position in which we find
ourselves: "a citizens' Europe for all, disabled people on the move". It
contains two elements, each divided into two representing a positive and a
negative face, which reflect our current situation:
1. A Citizens' Europe for All
There are five positive features which make the idea of European
citizenship more of a reality today than ever before:
A) Europe is prosperous as never before. This has many potential benefits
for disabled people: increased opportunities for marginalised groups to
enter the worlds of work and education; greater scope for implementing the
design for all principle in the design of goods and services; greater
opportunity to mainstream provision for disabled people.
B) Enlargement of the EU enables prosperity to be shared more widely
throughout Europe.
C) ICT enables communication and participation as never before.
D) There is more emphasis on opportunity, equality and dismantling of
barriers to social participation than ever before.
E) There is greater possibility of democratic participation than ever
before.
But there are three things which mean that the idea of European citizenship
is also in crisis:
a) The crisis of global capitalism means that the idea of steadily growing
prosperity is more at risk than at any time during the last 80 years. Where
an expansive approach to citizenship and social protection through
investment in social capital as called for in the European Disability
Forum's (EDF) Manifesto for the forthcoming European elections, and also by
the Social Platform, could be part of the solution, it is all too likely
that our political masters will take the path of retrenchment and cutting
back, which is actually the most counter-productive thing they could do.
b) The crisis in our political and social institutions: the crisis of
legitimacy as patterns of greed and inequality are revealed that haven't
been seen since before the 2nd World War; corruption in our political
institutions on a scale not dreamt of in our lifetime; popular anger and
disillusion; growth of right wing parties.
c) Embracing and developing the concept of citizenship would seem to be
critical to addressing these problems, but the EU seems chronically unable
to do this: democratic deficit persists; Community institutions are in chaos
and gridlock; the Community is experiencing great difficulty in getting
popular acceptance of the treaty which might rationalise all of this.
2. I turn now to the second part of the conference theme "disabled
people o the move". Again this has a positive and a negative face and I will
look briefly at both of them, both from the point of view of disabled people
as a whole and then from the standpoint of blind and partially sighted
people.
On the positive side we have opportunities and resources as never before:
A. We have made great philosophical advances: The things we need are now
generally seen as a matter of right and not just charity. Providing the
things disabled people need is widely seen as being as much a matter of
changing society as changing disabled people.
B. We have come a long way towards achieving the legislation we need to
deliver those rights and changes:
a) Equal Treatment Directive, or "Draft Directive on Equal Treatment between
Persons Irrespective of Religion or Belief, Disability, Age or Sexual
Orientation" to give it its full title. We have previously had protection
from discrimination in the area of employment, but only race and gender had
protection going beyond employment in fields such as goods and services,
transport, etc. Now that further level of protection is to be extended to
other equality groups. This required a massive lobbying campaign by disabled
- one of the most successful lobbying campaigns the EU has seen. Success in
securing amendments in the European Parliament--even to bring in
manufactured goods which is all-important for us in the UK. And of course
from that we gain greater confidence in our own strength.
b) The UN Convention - Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
(CRPD). EBU has done important work to spell out what each of the key rights
in the Convention should mean in practice in terms of provision for blind
and partially sighted people.
C) Our institutions are now much stronger: EDF; Social Platform.
In each of these areas blind and partially sighted people are now much
stronger: Our voice is strong within EDF. The EDF Manifesto incorporates
many of the things which are of greatest importance to us: design for all;
non-discrimination in relation to manufactured goods; access to information.
The Liaison Commission is working more effectively than ever, as is the EBU
office.
But there is also a negative face - we still have many challenges: the
outcome of the Equal Treatment Directive is still uncertain: It has been
through the Parliament where we have been able to make many gains and beat
off some tough opposition, but it still has to go through the Council of
Ministers, and what will happen there is very uncertain: for a start, it
will be in a new Parliament. There is also some heavyweight opposition, e.g.
Germany.
Generally, there is also the problem of implementation. Getting the right
legislation is one thing, but getting it properly implemented is another.
Specifically, so far as blind and partially sighted people are concerned,
there are new challenges to our safety and mobility from shared surfaces and
silent cars.
So we can't afford to relax. This conference will be important in surveying
the opportunities we have and the threats we face, and we intend to put them
into a declaration at the end which will be an important assessment of the
state of the nation.
Disclaimer: This document has been supported by the European Commission. The content of this document is the sole responsibility of its publishers and represents in no way the views of the Commission and its services.