EU commissioner calls for improved effort for disabled

EU commissioner Vladimir Spidla has demanded action to help disabled people become “active players” in the internal market.

Speaking at a conference on disability, he said, "People with disabilities must become active players in the internal market.

“The internal market needs to become a reality for all, including people with disabilities.”

The two-day conference, which concludes on Friday, heard that 50 million people in Europe have a long standing health problem or disability.

People with disabilities represent at least 16 per cent of the overall EU working age population, the conference, called ‘People with disabilities: Active Players in the Internal Market", was told.

Spidla was addressing an audience at the commission's Charlemagne building which included many people from all over Europe with disabilities.

“Accessibility to goods, services and infrastructures are a precondition for full enjoyment of fundamental rights of people with disabilities.

“At the same time, as consumers, people with disabilities create market opportunities, because they make the market for accessible products, services and infrastructure grow.

“As disability rises with age and Europe's population is ageing, this market will keep increasing,” added Spidla, commissioner for employment, social affairs and equal opportunities.

He was speaking just days after the European day of people with disabilities
Spidla will present the Commission's action plan on people with disabilities, whose key issues include  accessibility of goods, services and infrastructures,  transport, ICT and the built environment.

Terry Davis, secretary general of the Council of Europe, said, "We are all at risk of suffering a functional impairement at some point in our lives.

"Some of us will be disabled as a result but the degree of our disability will be determined less by our medical condition and more by the way we are seen and treated by others."

A spokesman for the European Coalition for Community Living, said, "The commission and member states must commit to stop building new institutions for people with disabilities, to adopt specific non-discrimination directive".

"While there has been progress in promoting equal citizenship, thousands still live in long-stay residential institutions."

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