Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the "Integration of disabled people in society"
Date: 2002-07-17
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: EU policy, European citizenship, European symbol, integration of people with disabilities, social integration

7.10.2002

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Official Journal of the European Communities

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Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Integration of disabled people in society’

(2002/C 241/17)

On 15 January 2002, the Economic and Social Committee, acting under Rule 23(3) of its Rules of
Procedure, decided to draw up an Opinion on ‘The Integration of disabled people in society’.

The Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship, which was responsible for preparing the
Committee’s work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 20 June 2002. The rapporteur was Mr Cabra de
Luna.

At its 392nd Plenary Session of 17 and 18 July 2002 (meeting of 17 July), the Economic and Social
Committee adopted the following opinion with 124 votes in favour, no dissenting votes and two
abstentions.

1.

Introduction

1.1.
There is a general agreement that disabled people
constitute about 10 % of the general population. This means
that there are 37 million disabled people in the European
Union and that there will be about 50 million disabled people
in the EU once the accession countries have joined. If we add
to this figure the families of disabled people, it becomes
obvious that we are speaking of a very large group of EU
citizens.

1.2.
On 3 December 2001, the Council of the European
Union approved the decision to declare 2003 the European
Year of People with Disabilities. The objectives stated in the
Council decision included raising awareness of the rights of
disabled people and exploring initiatives on how to promote
them. Other objectives included building partnerships among
the different stakeholders and paying special attention to the
role of the education system.

1.3.
The conference on disability held in Madrid in March
2002 adopted the so-called Madrid Declaration, which estab-
lishes a conceptual framework for the European Year and
includes a plan of how to achieve the main objectives, as well
as concrete suggestions for actions for all relevant stakeholders.
To achieve social
inclusion of disabled people, a synthesis
approach is proposed, based on a combination of anti-
discrimination policies and positive action measures.

Such an approach is in line with the references to
1.4.
disabled people in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights,
which in its Article 21 prohibits discrimination based on
grounds of disability, among others, and in its Article 26
provides explicit recognition of the rights of persons with
disabilities and the need to ensure their independence, social
and occupational integration and participation in the life of
the community.

1.5.
If adequate support is provided, disabled people can
contribute to society as all other citizens. It is therefore a
worthwhile investment for society to invest more in active
labour-market policies, in particular by providing support to
employers that employ or intend to employ disabled people.
This will produce savings in passive policies (1) and therefore
produce a more sustainable social protection system.

1.6.
Disabled people have the same human rights as all
other citizens, but in practice, our societies are organised in a
way that often makes it impossible for them to enjoy the full
range of human rights: civil, political, economic, social and
cultural. That is why disability is a human rights issue and this
should be the basis of all disability policies. Disabled people
deserve equal opportunities. Like all other citizens, disabled
people want the right to independent living, the right to make
their own choices.

1.7.
Disabled people are faced with many types of barriers
which hinder their full participation in society. These barriers
might be environmental, attitudinal, social, legal, communi-
cational or financial. The barriers disabled people face vary
significantly from one group of disabled people to the other.
For deaf people who use sign language as their first language,
the lack of recognition of sign language as an official language
creates serious communicational barriers.

1.8. Many of these barriers exist because disabled people
are largely forgotten when a new service is designed. That is
why disabled people are often referred to as the invisible
citizens. Obviously for mainstreaming of disability to become

(1) Passive policies meaning different types of benefits that disabled

people might receive when out of the labour market.

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a reality, disabled people need to be visible, so that decision-
makers in all spheres of society consider them when setting up
new services. The Council Resolution on equal opportunities of
disabled people from 1996 established the need to mainstream
disability in all relevant areas of EU policy. Disability main-
streaming can be defined as: the systematic integration of the
priorities and needs of disabled people in all policies and
general measures with a view to promoting equal opportunities
for disabled people by actively and openly taking into account,
at the planning stage, their effects on disabled people during
their implementation, monitoring and evaluation. This is
mostly an objective to be achieved and not yet a reality.

1.9.
The European Commission recently published the
Eurobarometer Survey (April 2001) (1) which identifies that six
Europeans in ten know someone with a disability and 97 % of
respondents think that more should be done to ensure better
integration of disabled people into society.

1.10.
Some examples of the barriers that disabled people
usually face include: inaccessible buildings and public areas,
inaccessible transport systems, schools that are not prepared to
accept disabled children because of lack of support structures,
inaccessible information,
inaccessible public services, and
inaccessible public and private websites.

Disabled people have not only rights but also duties
1.11.
and obligations. The barriers in society also largely prevent
disabled people from complying with their duties and obli-
gations. This has an economic cost for society which is seldom
considered. Promoting the participation of disabled people in
society will also prove positive from an economic point
of view as various studies on the costs of exclusion and
discrimination have shown.

Article 13 of the EC Treaty allows the EU to promote
1.12.
initiatives to combat discrimination faced, among others, by
disabled people. Based on this Article 13, in November 2000
the Council approved a directive on equal treatment in the
workplace, which covers disability among other grounds for
discrimination. This article has been the basis of the Council

decision to declare 2003 the European Year of People with
Disabilities. In July 2000, the Council of the European Union
approved an EU directive on equal treatment irrespective of
racial or ethnic origin. The scope of this directive, which is
based on Article 13, includes education, social advantages and
access to goods and services.

Several countries in the world have comprehensive
1.13.
anti-discrimination legislation which has proved very success-
ful in combating the different barriers, including attitudinal
barriers, that disabled people encounter in society. The first
and best known of these legal frameworks is the Americans
with Disabilities Act (1990). Since 1995, a similar comprehen-
sive anti-discrimination legislation has existed in the United
Kingdom and other less comprehensive legislations have been
adopted in Ireland, Sweden and very recently in Germany. In
other countries, such as the Netherlands and Spain, steps are
being taken to promote non-discrimination legislation.

1.14.
The European Commission communication Towards
a barrier-free Europe for people with disabilities (2) presents
commitments to developing and supporting a comprehensive
and integrated strategy to tackle social, architectural and design
barriers which restrict access for disabled people to social and
economic opportunities. The European Parliament Resol-
ution (3) on this European Commission communication
pressed for a strengthening of its commitments towards
disabled people in relation to areas such as freedom of
movement legislation, education, access to the built environ-
ment and goods and services. The European Year of People
with Disabilities will provide an important means to launch
commitments made by the European Commission in this
communication.

The figures included in a recent Eurostat publi-
1.15.
cation (4), show that disabled people are faced with very low
levels of employment and education. So, while 62 % of non-
disabled people of working age were in employment, only
24 % of severely disabled people were in employment. 18 %
of non-disabled people had reached the third level of education
and only 9 % of disabled people had reached the same
educational level.

( 1) Eurobarometer Report 54.2 (April 2001).

(4) ‘Disability and social participation in Europe’ Eurostat, 2001.

(2) COM(2000) 284.
(3) Resolution on Towards a Barrier-Free Europe for People with

Disabilities A5-0084/2001.

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1.16.
The social partners (ETUC, CEEP and UNICE/UEAP-
ME) adopted in May 1999 in Cologne the Declaration of the
European social partners on the employment of people with
disabilities. Among others, this Declaration states that ‘The
ETUC, CEEP and UNICE/UEAPME believe that an equal
opportunities’ approach is the right path to follow in order
to improve the employment opportunities of people with
disabilities in the open labour market’. Discrimination based
on factors which are irrelevant to the task in question is socially
unacceptable and economically inappropriate. Moreover, the
Declaration states ‘Through actively promoting the employ-
ment of people with disabilities, companies can develop
previously unexploited resources and increase their potential
for innovation’. The Declaration ended with a call from the
social partners to public authorities,
inviting them to ‘take
account of the needs of disabled people in an integrated way
in order to create a culture of inclusion rather than separation’.

1.17.
The lack of adequate support in the form of services
and public funding for disabled people has as a consequence
that the responsibility often relies on the family of the disabled
person. This is particularly the case for people with complex
dependency needs where the lack of support often results
either in confinement in institutions or in very difficult family
situations, with at least one of the family members leaving the
labour market to devote him/herself to the care of the disabled
family member. It is a matter of adequate resources, services
and also of allowing the families to reconcile their family life
with their work (1). If the extra costs linked to disability are not
covered by the public authorities, these are covered by disabled
people and their families and this mostly leads to poverty.

1.18.
The image of disabled people in society is not always
adequate. Low expectations towards disabled people but also
stigmatisation of some groups of disabled people such as
people with mental health problems, are the result. In the
strategy to improve this image the mass media play an
important role. Disabled people also need to be more present
in all spheres of society: as politicians at local, national
and European level, as employers and managers, in leading
positions in trade unions and in the third sector.

EU strategy against social exclusion and poverty as one of the
groups at risk of social exclusion and poverty. A recent
report (2) produced under the auspices of the European Dis-
ability Forum and carried out by the University of Athens in
cooperation with several European disability organisations
analyses the different factors that lead to the exclusion of
disabled people. The main factors highlighted in this study are:
the lack or limited access to the social environment and to
services,
the lack of adequate
education, the stigmatisation faced by disabled people and the
insufficient compensation of the extra costs linked to disability.
The report also shows how discrimination of disabled people
leads to social exclusion and poverty.

the lack of employment,

Disabled people form a very diverse group and
1.20.
disability policy needs to take this diversity into account.
Particular attention needs to be devoted to people with
complex dependency needs unable to represent themselves,
who require adequate services designed in cooperation and
consultation with their parents or carers.

Following a proposal made by the Mexican Govern-
1.21.
ment, the Third Committee of the United Nations decided at
its meeting in November 2001 to set up an ad hoc Committee
to study the feasibility of promoting a UN Convention on the
rights of disabled people. A first meeting of the ad hoc
Committee will take place before the autumn of 2002.

The European Economic and Social Committee in its
1.22.
opinion on the European Year of People with Disabilities
adopted on 17 October 2001, requested, among other things,
the European Commission to present a proposal for an EU
directive promoting equal treatment and combating discrimi-
nation on the grounds of disability in line with the EU directive
on equal treatment for people of ethnic origin. The opinion
also proposed the adoption of a disability specific action
programme which would finance an open method of coordi-
nation of disability policies. It included the proposal to produce
an own-initiative opinion in 2002 as a contribution to the
planning of the European Year in 2003.

2. General considerations

1.19.
These different factors often lead to social exclusion
and poverty. This is why disabled people were defined in the

2.1.
The European Year of People with Disabilities in 2003
provides a unique opportunity to advance the disability agenda

( 1) ‘Ressources, services, temps: trois éléments inséparables d’une

politique familiale’ Coface Handicap, April 2001.

(2) ‘Disability and social exclusion in the European Union: time for
change, tools for change’, a report produced by eight disability
organisations under the auspices of the European Disability Forum
and which was carried out by the University of Athens.

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in the European Union. The Year should be seen as the start of
a process that will continue well beyond the Year.

particular in education and access to goods and services. It
should also provide the support which disabled people and
their families need to benefit from real equal opportunities.

Public authorities at all levels, from EU institutions to

2.2.
local authorities, should lead by example in this process.

The success of the Year is based on an active involve-
2.3.
ment of all stakeholders at all levels which should establish
long-lasting partnerships.

2.4.
Disability policy is mainly a matter of national com-
petence. Increasingly different EU initiatives are influencing
national policies either through directives or through the use
of the open method of coordination relating specifically to
disabled people. Future disability policy needs, therefore, to
ensure proper complementarity of EU and national policies,
complemented obviously by the increasing competence of
regional and local authorities.

Actions to improve conditions for disabled people will
2.5.
lead to a better society. If services are designed to be accessible
to disabled people, they will be accessible to all citizens and in
particular to older people.

2.6.
A vast majority of disabled people are members of and
form part of disability associations that have been set up to
protect their rights. These associations can be found at all
levels, local, regional, national and international. All actions to
be undertaken during the European Year of People with
Disabilities 2003 should include disability organisations as one
of the partners. The time has passed when initiatives were
undertaken on behalf of disabled people without their active
participation.

2.7. Measures to improve the inclusion of disabled people
in our societies are diverse and need to combine legal initiatives
and general awareness campaigns.

Some of

these barriers (environmental, communi-
3.2.
cational) can be overcome through legal initiatives, others
(attitudinal) require awareness-raising campaigns. All require
commitment and cooperation by all relevant stakeholders.
There are already many good examples of how barriers can be
overcome, which have proved that such a step is possible and
positive for all stakeholders.

3.3.
The vast majority of disabled people in working age
are able and willing to work. Increasing their capacity to enter
the labour market will result in higher employment levels of
disabled people, which is a key to ensure their social partici-
pation. The recent EU directive on equal treatment in the
workplace is a useful contribution to the improvement of the
employment levels of disabled people. It needs however to be
complemented with adequate positive action, in particular by
providing adequate support to employers who employ disabled
people, including Small and Medium Enterprises, for which
these incentives might be specially attractive. Financial incen-
tives for disabled people to become self-employed should also
be provided. It needs to be ensured that passive policies do not
act as a disincentive for the integration in the labour market of
disabled people. For this to happen, the benefits covering the
extra costs linked to the disability need to be maintained also
when the disabled person enters the labour market and the
disabled person must have the guarantee of recovering the full
range of his/her previous benefits, in the event that he/she is
unable to stay in the labour market.

3.4.
In 2002, the EU Labour Force Survey will include an
ad hoc module on disability which will for the first time
provide comparable statistics on the employment levels of
disabled people.

The role of the social partners is vital. There are
3.5.
many examples of good practice among employers both in
employing disabled people and in designing their goods and
services in an accessible way. However, more could be done to
make these examples known among other employers. The
example of the UK Forum of Employers on Disability (1) is an
interesting model, which has so far not been taken up in other

3. Objectives to be promoted in the European Year

The European Year of People with Disabilities should
3.1.
start the process for the progressive elimination of the barriers
in
that disabled people encounter in all spheres of

life,

(1) The UK Employers’ Forum on Disability is a network of UK
employers interested in disability issues. The Forum members
employ over 22 % of the UK workforce. The Forum provides
support to employers who intend to employ disabled people or
improve their service to disabled customers.

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Member States. Employers should see this as part of the overall
corporate community involvement in line with the Green
Paper on Corporate Social Responsibility.

the European Commission Communication (3) on life-long
learning need to take disabled people into account in all its
aspects.

Social cooperation can play an important role in combating
the social exclusion of differently abled people. Through the
creation of cooperatives or other bodies that promote insertion
into working life the disabled person acquires dignity and
independence, and is able to integrate fully into the social
fabric.

3.6.
The role of trade unions too is vital in this respect, in
particular to ensure that disabled people who are in employ-
ment also benefit from equal opportunities in respect of their
internal promotion. Trade unions also play a vital role in the
dissemination of
in
the workplace. Finally, the role of welfare associations and
foundations which offer social services and employment
opportunities to disabled people play a crucial role.

the EU directive on equal treatment

3.7.
An important dimension of employment policies for
disabled people is that of job retention, as highlighted in a
recent OECD/ILO study (1) and in the latest initiatives of the
European Agency on Health and Safety. Most disabled people
acquire their disability in working age; however, insufficient
efforts are made to keep them in the labour market. There are
various interesting models on job retention in a number of
countries, such as Sweden and the UK (2). A key element of a
successful job retention policy is to maintain the link between
the disabled person and his/her employer. Obviously, the way
the social security system operates has a major influence on
this issue. The full access of disabled people to life-long
learning needs to be ensured and recent initiatives such as

( 1) ‘International survey project on strategies for the retention and
inclusion to employment of disabled people’ by Patricia Thornton,
Social Policy Research Unit of University of York.

( 2) The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) has presented in
the UK the so-called ‘disability leave’, which is currently being
explored. The concept
is similar to that of maternity leave,
allowing a person who has acquired a disability to leave his/her
job for some time to obtain the necessary rehabilitation and then
resume work within the same company.

For disabled people, as for all other citizens, education
3.8.
is a key element for employment and social participation in
general. The general rule for the education of disabled children
should be that of inclusive education. This is not only good
for disabled children but also for non-disabled children to
develop understanding of the right of disabled people to take
their equal place in a diverse society. For inclusive education
to be a success, disabled children and youngsters must benefit
from the adequate support their specific impairment requires.

3.9.
Special education can only be considered the preferred
option for disabled children when such a decision is reached
in agreement with the parents of the disabled child. Special
schools must guarantee the provision of an equivalent quality
education with mainstream schools. Special schools must be
evaluated regularly.

3.10.
In particular, the European Year of People with
Disabilities 2003 should mean progress for those disabled
people most at risk of exclusion and those who face double
and multiple discrimination: women with disabilities and
disabled people from ethnic minorities. Particular attention
should be given to people with complex dependency needs
and their families and carers, to establish support structures
that ensure their access to the full range of human rights.

Some progress has been made recently in the areas of
3.11.
social policy, transport and information society, where most
of the latest initiatives take into account disabled people. This
is not the situation in many other areas, which proves that
mainstreaming needs to be strengthened.

3.12.
Special efforts need to be made to mainstream
disability into all relevant EU policy areas. Such efforts must
happen during the European Year in 2003 but must also
continue over the years to come. Although disabled people are
not formally excluded from any of these areas, their lack of
visibility leads to their exclusion in practice. Therefore, specific
references to disabled people in all relevant initiatives are
needed and, when appropriate, changes need to be made in
order for disabled people to be able to fully benefit from and
contribute to these initiatives.

(3) European Commission Communication Making a European Area

of Lifelong Learning a Reality (COM 2001) 678.

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3.13.
Such EU initiatives where specific references to dis-
abled people are needed include EU consumer policies, EU
initiatives on human rights, EU action programme on youth,
EU programmes and initiatives in the field of education
(Socrates, Comenius, Leonardo da Vinci), EU programmes on
culture and media, and EU activities in the field of sports, in
particular those related to the planned European Year on
Education through Sports in 2004.

human rights, but also, from an economic point of view, it
means that employers are losing an important part of their
potential consumers. Consumer organisations have a vital
contribution to make in support of this work so it may become
a reality. A good example is provided by a recent survey
undertaken by a Spanish consumer organisation, which shows
that 50 % of such facilities were not accessible to disabled
people.

3.14.
Disabled people and parents and representatives of
disabled people must be involved in the work of the different
EU processes which apply the open method of coordination
such as in the field of education, youth and pensions. This can
only be achieved if the EU institutions and the Member States
commit and actively ensure that disability issues are included
and that representative disability organisations are involved in
this work. When statistical indicators are defined to support
this process, these must provide information on the situation
of disabled people.

3.18.
Like all other citizens, disabled people have to be
active members of society and should be able to be active in a
variety of organisations, including political parties, professional
organisations, religious organisations, sports clubs, environ-
mental groups and other associations. All these organisations
need to be organised in a way that allows disabled people to
take part in them.

Disability policy remains, by and large, a matter of
3.15.
national competence. Although disability is included in the
European Employment Strategy and the EU strategy against
social exclusion and poverty, the focus on disabled people
varies significantly from one Member State to the other and is,
therefore, not providing a comprehensive and comparable
situation among different Member States. This is a missed
opportunity as Member States cannot sufficiently benefit from
the possibility of exchanging their policies and examples of
good practice. There is a general lack of indicators and data on
the situation of disabled people, which makes it almost
impossible to compare the effectiveness of
the different
national policies.

3.16.
The European Year of People with Disabilities should
mean an advancement in the exchange between EU Member
States and accession countries on national disability policies.

3.17.
Disabled people should have access to the same
services as all other citizens. This means that their needs must
be considered in the early stages of the planning process. This
includes planning decisions relating to public areas such as:
restaurants, cinemas, theatres, schools, universities, shopping
centres, museums, parks or stadia. Not ensuring access of
disabled people to these services is an infringement of basic

3.19.
The portrayal of disabled people by the mass media
needs to be improved. Information and programmes need to
be based on an approach that acknowledges the rights of
disabled people and that highlights the barriers disabled people
face to full participation in society.

3.20.
The European Year of People with Disabilities 2003
should not be limited to disabled people living in the European
Union, but also benefit disabled people in accession countries,
where the situation of disabled people is often even more
negative than within the EU. Moreover, disabled people in
developing countries should also benefit from the results of
the European Year through their increased visibility in EU
development cooperation policies.

3.21.
The right of disabled people through their representa-
tive organisations to be part of the decision-making process
should be strengthened in the European Year within the overall
initiative to promote a structured civil dialogue at EU level.
This is also of direct benefit for decision-makers, who are not
always aware of how to design policies in order that they also
adequately cover disabled people. The process used to draw up
the present opinion could be given as an example of good
practice, as a public hearing was organised with representatives
from the disability movement to seek their views. This helped
to provide a better understanding of the situation and key
demands of the disability movement, as well as serving to
highlight the diversity of the disability movement.

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4. Concrete proposals

4.1.
In view of the objectives defined in the previous section,
the European Economic and Social Committee considers that
the following proposals would make a useful contribution to
achieving these objectives.

4.2.
A disability specific action programme should be
established at EU level which would have as its main goals the
following:

a)

b)

to support the mainstreaming of disability in all relevant
EU policy areas,
inter alia by strengthening current
consultation and monitoring mechanisms and by pro-
moting disability awareness among key decision-makers,
focusing on possibilities for disabled people;

to support the establishment of an open method of
coordination in the field of disability, based on common
outcome indicators that would make it possible to
monitor the progress in time of the levels of social
inclusion of disabled people. This method would include
all relevant areas of disability policy, such as education,
vocational training, life-long learning, employment, trans-
port, information society, benefit systems and services
for people with complex dependency needs and their
families. Examples of good practice in each of these areas
must be provided to allow mutual learning. The open
method of coordination of disability policies would be
useful for all Member States and in particular also for the
countries joining the European Union in the near future;

c)

to ensure and strengthen the participation of representa-
tive disability organisations in the civil dialogue at EU
level, including the provision of adequate funding and
adequate consultation mechanisms;

d)

to involve welfare associations and foundations which
offer social services for disabled people.

4.3.
To contribute to the elimination of current barriers
and prevention of new barriers and as a major contribution of
the European Year to the advancement of the disability agenda,
an EU directive based on Article 13 should be approved to
make it unlawful to discriminate against disabled people in all
spheres of life, including education and access to goods and
services which are available to the public, including housing.

This should establish reasonable deadlines for the current
inaccessible infrastructure to be made gradually more access-
ible and also make provision for adequate enforcement
mechanisms, including an independent monitoring body in
each Member State in charge of monitoring the implemen-
tation of this directive at national level.

4.4. With a view to increasing the employment levels of
disabled people, the Economic and Social Committee would
like to make the following suggestions:

a)

b)

c)

d)

e)

f)

EU Member States should ensure the swift and adequate
implementation of the EU directive on equal treatment in
the workplace;

the European Commission should propose, and the
Member States should agree, to strengthen current guide-
line 7 in the Employment Guidelines that refers to
disabled people by urging Member States to establish
concrete targets for the employment of disabled people
and to refer to the incentives for employers that employ
disabled people; such incentive schemes should be better
known among employers and disabled people and should
be easy and quick to obtain;

the social partners at EU level should consider making
use of the EU social dialogue mechanisms structure to
propose new initiatives for the employment of disabled
people, including job retention;

in line with the recent European Parliament decision at
first reading, the EU directives on public procurement
should be modified, allowing public authorities to include
the employment of disabled people as an award criterion
and to request, when relevant, that products and services
need to be designed and produced so that they are
accessible for disabled people;

national and EU networks of employers and trade unions
involved in the employment of disabled people could be
established;

to monitor the outcome of these different measures, the
EU Labour Force Survey should permanently include
information on the situation of disabled people in the
labour market.

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4.5.
The new open method of coordination in the field of
education should include disabled children and young people
as one of the main target groups and all actions and indicators
should consider them. The European Day of Disabled People
in 2002 will be devoted to raising awareness and to prepare
the active participation of the entire school system in the
European Year of People with Disabilities 2003.

4.10.
The European Economic and Social Committee com-
mits itself to endorse the Madrid Declaration and to contribute
to the objectives referred to in that Declaration and to its
widespread dissemination.

4.6.
New technologies, both mainstream and assistive, if
developed appropriately, can play a vital role in overcoming
some of the barriers disabled people face. Therefore the
forthcoming EU Sixth Framework Programme on Research
and Development, the telecommunications package of direc-
tives on service provision and the new eEurope 2005 action
plan should request that disability be considered as a horizontal
issue, as well as supporting initiatives addressed specifically at
disabled people. Also, more efforts need to be made to
eliminate all the legal and other barriers that currently prevent
the establishment of a real European market of assistive
technologies, as well as to provide at national
level the
adequate financial support for disabled people requiring the
use of these technologies.

4.7.
In order to ensure the full visibility of disabled people
in the EU strategy against social exclusion and poverty, a
breakdown by disability should be provided in the different
indicators that will be the basis for measuring the effectiveness
of national policies in this field. The representative disability
organisations should be involved in the design, implemen-
tation and evaluation of the National Action Plans against
social exclusion and poverty.

The Committee undertakes to press for international
4.8.
and national action to promote and support forms of entrep-
reneurial activity which seek to integrate disabled people into
the social fabric. In particular, the Committee undertakes to
boost and provide encouragement for cooperative ventures
and other social organisations.

4.9.
In order to support the human rights of disabled
people also at world-wide level, the European Economic and
Social Committee supports the need to ensure that disabled
people are adequately considered in the EU and national
development cooperation policies.

4.11.
The European Economic and Social Committee calls
on all stakeholders, public and private, local, national and EU,
to approach the actions in the European Year in view of the
recently proclaimed Madrid Declaration, which defines the
conceptual framework for the Year and suggests concrete
actions for the different stakeholders.
In particular, mass
media, consumer organisations, youth organisations, sport
clubs, religious organisations, associations and other stake-
holders should use the European Year to improve their services
and work to ensure that disabled people can fully benefit from
them as well as contribute to them.

4.12.
The European Economic and Social Committee com-
mits itself hereby to mainstream disability throughout its
work, and to consider the interests, rights and duties of
disabled people in all its opinions, including, where relevant,
specific references to disabled people in those opinions. A
document should be prepared to remind rapporteurs of this
issue, giving them some guidance on how to take disability
and disabled people into account, with a particular recommen-
dation to consult with representative disability organisations.
There should be regular evaluation on how disability is taken
into account
the European
in the different opinions of
Economic and Social Committee.

The European Economic and Social Committee will
4.13.
be actively involved in the evaluation of the European Year of
People with Disabilities 2003 in order to continue to make
proposals that promote the social inclusion of disabled people,
as well as undertaking a periodic evaluation of progress in EU
disability policies.

4.14.
The European Economic and Social Committee wel-
comes the proposal made by the UN Special Rapporteur on
Disability and approved by the UN Commission for Social
Development to strengthen the content of the UN Standard
Rules and to maintain the current monitoring structure.
Moreover the European Economic and Social Committee
supports the initiative approved by the United Nations to
launch a process to establish a UN Convention on the Rights
of Disabled People which would ensure that disabled people
fully benefit from the current international Conventions.

7.10.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 241/97

4.15.
The European Economic and Social Committee will
take into account the content of the present opinion in its
work on the Convention on the future of Europe.

4.16.
The European Economic and Social Committee will
disseminate the present opinion to relevant European and
national disability organisations.

Brussels, 17 July 2002.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Göke FRERICHS

Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a Decision of the European
Parliament and of the Council amending Decision No 253/2000/EC establishing the second phase
of the Community action programme in the field of education ‘Socrates’

(COM(2002) 193 final)

(2002/C 241/18)

On 7 June 2002, the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Article 198
of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship, which was responsible for preparing the
Committee’s work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 20 June 2002. The rapporteur was Mr Bernabei.

At its 392nd Plenary Session (meeting of 17 July 2002), the Economic and Social Committee unanimously
adopted the following opinion.

1.

Introduction

significant specific weight, and at the same time underline its
importance for achieving other goals such as professional
mobility and full employment; we can therefore say that, in
future, education will be a fundamental and indispensable
element of the process of European construction.’ (1)

1.1.
The Socrates programme is based upon Articles 149
and 150 of the EC Treaty which state that the Community
shall contribute to the development of quality education by
encouraging cooperation between Member States through a
series of measures including mobility, exchanges of infor-
mation, teaching the languages of the Member States and
promoting lifelong learning for all EU citizens.

1.2.
The Community supports and supplements the action
of Member States in the field of education, respecting the
responsibility of Member States for the content and organis-
ation of national education systems. Moreover, the focus of
Community policy as defined at the Lisbon and Stockholm
European Councils is the sustainable development of the
European economy as the most competitive knowledge-based
economy in the world. The conclusions of the Barcelona
European Council gave education ‘for the first time, its own

In particular, the Barcelona European Council asked
1.3.
the Commission to take immediate steps to implement five
actions: ensure the transparency of diplomas and qualifi-
cations, especially concerning vocational training; encourage
foreign language learning; promote the European dimension
in education in Member States; activate the Work Programme
on objectives for education and training systems; and adopt
the Resolution on Lifelong Learning before the June 2002
European Council in Seville.

(1) Declaration of the Spanish Presidency at the Education and Youth

Council of 30.5.2002