The Council of Europe working group which is drafting the Council of Europe action plan on disability met in Paris on 17-19 January 2005. As in late November 2004, EDF was invited to a one day hearing on 17 January 2005 to state its proposals and comments to the last version (version 7) of the Council of Europe action plan. EDF was represented by EDF Advisor Stefan TRÖMEL.
Many of EDF previous comments (to version 6) had been taken into account in the new version 7 and most of the EDF comments made during the meeting on Monday 17 January 2005 were also well received.
Most relevant elements resulting from the discussion were:
Following an EDF proposal, it was agreed to include a section just before the action lines which will deal with three horizontal issues: anti discrimination legislation, mainstreaming of disability and the use of public funds and public procurement.
There is still no agreement on the issue of prevention, but most of the Governments (and EDF) oppose an action line of prevention of disability.
On the issue of deprivation of liberty (institutionalisation) as well as on the issue of legal capacity, EDF did oppose to the proposed text and reminded about the ongoing discussions about this issues in the framework of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It would be better not to refer to these issues in the action plan than to do it in a way which is not acceptable for the disability organisations.
On monitoring and follow-up, EDF has insisted on the need for work both at national and at European level. The idea of Council of Europe recommendations to specific Member States (as proposed by EDF) met with opposition.
Finally, there was general agreement that there should be no European timetable for the implementation of the action plan, as the state of play is very diverse among Council of Europe Member States. However, there seems to be agreement for a revision of the action plan after some years have passed.
The next step in this process will be the meeting of the Council of Europe working group (not the drafting group), of which EDF is an observer member. This meeting will be in the second week of March in Strasbourg.
In terms of adoption of the action plan, the October 2005 meeting of the CD-P-RR (the Council of Europe Committee on Disability which is leading this process) seems to be the target date for the adoption.
As finally no agreement could be found to extend the work of the Council of Europe to all 46 Council of Europe Member States, the action plan will be adopted within the CD-P-RR, but it could then be “upgraded” to become an action plan for all Council of Europe Member States through a decision of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers.
The extension of disability to all Council of Europe Member States will be discussed again later in the year. It seems that if the proposal is to move both disability and public health (the two elements of the Partial Agreement) to the general Council of Europe work, the proposal might be accepted. In fact, most of the opposition to the extension came from the public health sector, who didn’t like to be “left behind” in the Partial Agreement.
Finally, efforts are being made to include a reference to this action plan in the conclusions of the Council of Europe Summit of Heads of State (the third in the Council of Europe history) which will take place in May 2005 in Warsaw. |
