COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies
Date: 2016-07-19
Institutions: Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, European Commission
Subjects: EU Member State, Internet address, Internet site, access to information, mobile phone, public sector, software

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 19.7.2016  COM(2016) 484 final 2012/0340 (COD)   COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union  concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies (Text with EEA relevance)  
 
 
2012/0340 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union 

concerning the 

position of the Council on the adoption of a Proposal for a Directive of the European 
Parliament and of the Council on the accessibility of the websites and mobile 
applications of public sector bodies 

(Text with EEA relevance) 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and 
to the Council (document COM(2012) 721 final — 2012/0340 
(COD): 

Date of the opinion of the European Economic and Social 
Committee:  

Date of the position of the European Parliament, first reading: 

Date of adoption of the position of the Council: 

03.12.2012 

22.05.2013 

26.02.2014 

18.07.2016 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION 

The objective of the Commission's proposal is to address the fragmentation of the EU’s single 
market  for  web-accessibility  related  products  and  services  by  approximating  the  laws, 
regulations  and  administrative  provisions  of  the  Member  States  on  the  accessibility  of 
websites of public sector bodies.  

The  proposal  provided  that  some  public  sector  bodies’  websites  would  be  made  accessible 
across the EU by meeting the same technical norms and standards (Web Content Accessibility 
Guidelines WCAG 2.0 Level AA of the W3C consortium – WCAG 2.0). 

The  proposal  covered  only  12  types  of  public  sector  websites,  giving  Member  States  the 
freedom to extend this list. 

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE COUNCIL 

Overall,  the  Council  accepted  the  need  to  legislate  in  this  area  and  endorsed  the  core 
objectives of the Commission proposal, namely to improve the accessibility of public sector 
websites. However, the Council made some changes on how to achieve those objectives. 

In  particular,  the  scope  of  the  proposal  was  extended  to  cover  websites  and  mobile 
applications of all public sector bodies, with some limited exceptions on the types of body and 
content covered. A set of provisions allowing public sector bodies to apply the accessibility 

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requirements  to  the  extent  that  they  do  not  impose  a  disproportionate  burden  (taking  into 
account factors such as the size and resources of the public sector body) was also included.   

The  definition  of  ‘public  sector  body’  clarifies  that  the  extension  to  associations  formed  by 
one or several authorities or bodies governed by public law covers associations established for 
the  specific  purpose  of  meeting  needs  of  general  interest,  not  having  an  industrial  or 
commercial character. 

Member States may maintain or introduce measures (in conformity with Union law) which go 
beyond the minimum requirements provided by the Directive. 

The  provisions  on  standards  have  been  adapted  to  take  account  of  the  adoption  of  the 
European standard in 2014 on “Accessibility requirements suitable for public procurement of 
ICT products and services in Europe” (EN 301 549), resulting from Mandate 376, and also to 
take account of the fact that there is ongoing standardisation work on mobile applications. The 
Commission will be required to adopt implementing acts within 24 months from the entry into 
force  of  the  Directive  providing  technical  specifications  for  mobile  applications  in  cases 
where  no  reference  to  a  harmonised  standard  covering  them  has  been  published.  A  specific 
obligation was included to comply with the relevant provisions of the European standard EN 
301 549  V1.1.2  (2015-04)  for  websites  and  mobile  applications,  and  the  Commission  is 
empowered  to  adopt  a  delegated  act  to  make  reference  to  a  more  recent  version  of  that 
standard,  or  to  a  European  standard  replacing  it,  also  in  case  no  reference  to  harmonised 
standards covering it has been published. 

As it stands, the text lays down requirements on transparency (public sector bodies will need 
to publish information on the accessibility of their websites and mobile applications) and for 
users  to  request  certain  content  otherwise  exempted  from  accessibility  requirements.  The 
amended  proposal  also  lays  down  requirements  for  an  effective  enforcement  procedure, 
including the possibility to contact an ombudsman and monitoring and reporting by Member 
States. These should reinforce the effective implementation of the accessibility requirements. 

The  Commission  is  further  requested  to  establish  through  implementing  acts  the  model 
statement on accessibility which public sector bodies will be required to publish, the reporting 
arrangements for Member States and the monitoring methodology which Member States will 
need to put in place. 

Once  adopted,  Member  States  must  transpose  the  Directive  into  national  law  within  21 
months after the date of its entry into force. They then have 12 months to apply the provisions 
to  new  public  sector  bodies’  websites,  24  months  to  existing  websites  and  33  months  to 
mobile applications of public sector bodies. 

The Commission supports this outcome. 

Following the informal tripartite discussions of 26 January, 2 February and 3 May 2016, the 
Parliament and the Council reached provisional political agreement on the text. 

This political agreement was confirmed by the Council on 16 June and on 18 July 2016 the 
Council adopted its first reading position. 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The  Commission  supports  the  results  of  the  interinstitutional  negotiations  and  can  therefore 
accept the Council's position at first reading. 

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