Brussels hopes that people with disabilities have a preferential treatment in public and private services, transport, cultural events, museums, sports and leisure centers or amusement parks, regardless of the Member State to which they travel. For this, the European Comission has adopted this Wednesday a new legislative proposal with which it aspires to facilitate the right to free movement of people with disabilities. The plan introduces a standard european disability card and improve the current european parking cardwhich will be recognized throughout the EU.
“The rights of people with disabilities should not stop at national borders. We want these people to travel more easily and some of the obstacles to disappear thanks to the European Disability Card and the improvement of European Parking Card”explained the vice president and head of values and transparency, Vera Jourova, about a group that, according to Brussels, faces “structural barriers and systemic inequalities” & rdquor; that limit their participation in society.
For example, when a person’s disability status is not recognized abroad, the first consequence is that they cannot access special conditions and preferential treatment when visiting other Member States, such as free or priority access, reduced rates or personal assistance. To solve this problem, the European Commission proposes the creation of a standardized document that serves throughout the EU and guarantees equal access to special conditions and preferential treatment. As announced by Brussels, this document will be issued by the competent national authorities and will complement existing national cards or certificates.
parking card
In addition, the Community Executive also proposes improvements to the European Parking Card. “For many people with disabilities, private transportation by car guarantees autonomy and continues to be the best or only way to travel and move around independently”, alleges the Commission, justifying the measure based on the need to harmonize parking rights. The card will have a binding common format that will replace the national parking cards for people with disabilities and will be recognized throughout the EU.
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For ease of use and to reduce administrative burden, the regulations require governments to facilitate cards both in physical and digital version, to make the conditions and rules for the issuance or withdrawal of cards in accessible formats available to the public and to ensure that service providers offer information on special conditions and preferential treatment for people with disabilities in accessible formats . The proposal, which will now have to be negotiated by the European Parliament and the Council, also calls on governments to provide for the possibility of imposing fines and to demand corrective measures in case of infringement. Once adopted, governments will have 18 months to incorporate the content of the directive into their national legislation.
“I hope that Member States will work quickly, given the historical importance of this initiative. We must shorten the deadlines for us to finish the legislature in 2024 with a real card & rdquor ;, has defended the Catalan MEP Jordi Cañas who estimates the number of people with disabilities in the EU at 87 million. The initiative is based on the results of the pilot project carried out in Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Malta, Romania and Slovenia between 2016 and 2018 and on the results of a recent public consultation with more than 3,300 responses, of which 78% came from people with disabilities.