Mr President, I should like to say thank you to the sign language interpreters. I wish we could have sign language interpretation every plenary session, for every report. I should also like to thank everyone who has helped me to write this report: all the MEPs that have worked very hard with me to come up with compromise amendments; the Commission; and especially disabled people's organisations. I have taken a lot of advice on this report. That is why it is a good one. It is not my report. It is a report that has been brought together with the help of disabled people. I am delighted that the UN ad hoc Committee, between 16 and 27 June 2003, decided on a specific convention on disabled people's rights. I believe only a specific, legally-binding convention will do, rather than any other instrument. But there must be a monitoring mechanism to see how disabled people are treated in practice across the world. I put in my report a list of rights that should be included in any UN convention. It is a non-exhaustive list because of space. However, I called for a mainly rights-based approach to get away, once and for all, from the medical model of disability and to cover all forms of disability, whether it is a person using a wheelchair, or somebody with another mobility problem, a hearing impairment, a visual impairment, a learning disability, a mental health problem or any other hidden disability. We must be inclusive. There are 37 million disabled people in the European Union. There are 600 million disabled people world-wide. There has already been some progress in the United Nations: the 1981 World Programme of Action and the 1993 Standard Rules on Equalisation of Opportunities for People with Disabilities, to name but two. At EU level there has also been progress: in 1997, for instance, Article 13 of the Treaty of Amsterdam brought forward the employment directive and the Action Programme. But as I said in my report, we now need a specific disability directive at EU level. We need all Member States to implement the current employment directive that is due to be implemented this year. There are many Member States that have not even started to look at implementation. Even if we did get it right at European level, 80% of disabled people come from developing countries. That is why we need a legally-binding convention covering a whole raft of different rights, including the right to quality of life. That also means protection from degrading and inhumane treatment. That includes institutionalisation. We need to see access to employment because a vast majority of disabled people do not have employment. We need access to vocational training, education and the right to inclusion, which is so important. That means access to buildings, access to live as independent a life as possible, and access to public transport. If people do not have access to public transport they cannot get to their place of work. Then we look at civil and political rights. I believe very strongly in equal citizenship, as do most of us here. That means no more 'rights for disabled people', but 'equal rights for disabled people'. Those equal rights mean access to financial support as well; access to health care, access to culture and leisure – including sporting activities, equality before the law and the right to justice. I understand that a split vote has been asked for so that only organisations of disabled people, rather than organisations representing disabled people, will be consulted over this. Let us remember that we deal with developing countries here! Many do not have organisations of disabled people. They only have organisations representing disabled people. Are we going to exclude them? We are not just dealing with the European Union. This is a world-wide convention. Even within the EU there are many organisations that would be left out, including the Royal National Institute for the Deaf in the UK, and, more importantly, people with profound learning disabilities and severe mental problems, who quite often need an advocate to speak on their behalf. I urge you to vote for this report in its entirety and not be tempted to vote in the split vote. (Applause)

Political group: ELDR