CONCLUSIONS OF THE COUNCIL of 12 June 1989 on the employment of disabled people in the Community (89/C 173/01)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, 1. NOTES with interest the Commission report on the application of Council recommendation 86/379/EEC of 24 July 1986 on the employment of disabled people in the Community (1);

2. NOTES that the said Council recommendation: (a) has contributed to a review of national measures relating to the employment and vocational training of disabled people which have been brought into line with the common objectives set out in the recommendation;

(b) has offered a Community reference framework for national measures which were being prepared when it was adopted;

(c) has encouraged the introduction or preparation of new measures in accordance with the spirit of the recommendation;

3. RECOGNIZES that, in spite of the efforts by Member States, disabled people are continuing to experience difficulty in gaining access on an equal basis to vocational training and employment and that their unemployment rate is appreciably higher than that of the population as a whole;

4. CONSIDERS that improvement in the employment situation for disabled people must essentially be achieved through the implementation of general policies based on economic growth and job creation, but that success of such policies does not necessarily guarantee equal opportunities for disabled people in the employment system and in vocational training in view of their particular problems ; whereas there is therefore a need to promote special measures in this respect;

5. CONSIDERS that the implementation, both at national and Community level, of programmes intended to encourage the process of insertion in the labour market and to improve the situation on the labour market for disabled people, who form one of the most disadvantaged groups in the population is a basic requirement of an active social policy of a kind which will help to strengthen economic and social cohesion in the context of achieving the internal market, including its social dimension, from which all citizens of the Community must, without exception, benefit;

6. DRAWS attention to the Council resolution of 22 December 1986 on an action programme on employment growth (2) which emphasized the need to adopt measures to increase equal opportunities for disabled people within the labour market;

7. CONSIDERS that the aim of such measures should be, firstly, to guarantee that no citizen of the Community suffers discrimination with regard to access to vocational training and employment or, when employed, to the pursuit of his employment in the sole grounds of his disability and to promote positive measures which help to make such equality effective;

8. CONSIDERS that one of the main aspects of the policy of occupational integration of disabled people is to inform and increase the awareness of all the parties involved in the integration process, and to back this up by dialogue between the social partners at all levels; (1) OJ No L 225, 12.8.1986, p. 43. (2) OJ No C 340, 31.12.1986, p. 2.

9. INVITES therefore the Member States: (a) to uphold and continue to implement policies of positive action to promote the occupational integration of disabled people;

(b) to encourage and promote the involvement of the social partners and the representatives of disabled people in defining and implementing such measures;

10. INVITES the Member States and the Commission to develop measures to achieve a better knowledge of the social realities affecting disabled people and of their situation in relation to employment;

11. INVITES the Commission to: (a) develop measures within the Helios programme to promote cooperation, exchanges of experience and greater reciprocal knowledge amongst the various Member States of the measures implemented by them and encourage Community-wide debate on the most effective instruments for achieving a greater degree of occupational integration for disabled people;

(b) continue to give effective support, particularly within the framework of the European Social Fund rules, to national measures for the occupational integration of disabled people, taking account of the special problems they experience and the aims of Community social policy;

(c) submit to the Council, on the basis of an evaluation of the results of the implementation of recommendation 86/379/EEC, proposals in the field covered by the said recommendation which will ensure better coordination and greater consistency between the measures introduced by the Member States.