CELEX: 51989PC0450
Language: en
Date: 1989-09-27
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DECISION CONCERNING THE FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE HANDYNET SYSTEM IN THE CONTEXT OF THE HELIOS PROGRAMME

No C 272/10                           Official Journal of the European Communities                                25. 10. 89
              Proposal for a Council Decision concerning the further development of the Handynet system in
                                            the context of the Helios programme
                                                     COM(89) 450 final
                                     (Submitted by the Commission on 3 October 1989)
                                                        (89/C 272/13)
 THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                        Whereas the resolution of the Council and of the repre-
                                                                 sentatives of the governments of the Member States
                                                                 meeting within the Council of 21 December 1981 on the
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European           social integration of handicapped people (J) sets out to
 Economic Community, and in particular Articles 128 and          promote the development and availability of technical
235 thereof,                                                     aids, the pooling of information and experience in the
                                                                 field and the application of new technologies, so as to
                                                                 facilitate the communication, mobility and employment
Having regard to Council Decision 88/231/EEC of 18               of handicapped people; whereas the Commission was
April 1988 establishing a second Community action                invited to continue its efforts by pooling the information
programme for disabled people (Helios) ('), and in               and taking into account the existing national information
particular Article 4 (2) thereof and the provision               systems and ensuring an exchange of information
contained in point 2 (d) of the Annex thereto,                   between the services involved in framing                and
                                                                 implementing social integration measures, including
                                                                 representatives of handicapped people;
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
                                                                 Whereas the Council Recommendation 86/379/EEC of
Having regard      to   the  opinion    of   the  European       24 July 1986 on the employment of disabled people in
Parliament,                                                      the Community (4) advocates the development, for the
                                                                 benefit of disabled people, their families and the
                                                                 professionals concerned, of a system of information and
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                 advice covering technical aids an other questions of
Social Committee,                                                importance to disabled people;
Whereas the principal objective of the Helios programme
is to develop, in the fields of vocational training and          Whereas, in its conclusions of 12 June 1989 on the
rehabilitation, economic integration, social integration         employment of disabled people in the Community ( s ),
and independent way of life for disabled people, a               the Council considers that one of the main aspects of the
Community approach based on the best innovatory                  policy of occupational integration of disabled people is
experience in the Member States; whereas one of the              to inform all the parties involved and invites the Member
general measures intended to achieve that objective              States and the Commission to develop measures to
consists in developing the European Community compu-             achieve a better knowledge of the social realities of
terized information system on disability questions in the        disabled people and of their situation in relation to
official languages of the Community, referred to as              employment;
Handynet, using new information technologies for the
collection, updating and exchange of information;
                                                                 Whereas, in a more general field than that of the inte-
                                                                 gration of the disabled, the Council advocates, by means
Whereas, in its resolution of 27 June 1974, establishing         of Decision 88/524/EEC of 26 July 1988 concerning the
an initial Community action programme for the voca-              establishment of a plan of action for setting up an infor-
tional training of handicapped persons (2), the Council          mation services market (6) the establishment of a
states that the aim is to improve the general level of           European information market observatory in order to
information on the problems of handicapped persons and           keep the Commission informed in drawing up its policy,
invites the Commission to implement measures, seeking            the improvement of the conditions for transmitting and
in particular, the assistance of associations for handi-         accessing information services, in particular, through
capped persons;                                                  greater standardization and simplification and the
                                                                 (3) OJ  No  C 347, 31. 12. 1981, p. 1.
                                                                 (4) OJ  No  L 225, 12. 8. 1986, p. 43.
(') OJ No L 104, 23. 4. 1988, p. 38.                             (5) OJ  No  C 173, 8. 7. 1989, p. 1.
(2) OJ No C 80, 9. 7. 1974, p. 30.                               (') OJ  No  L 288, 21. 10. 1988, p. 39.
 ---pagebreak--- 25. 10. 89                             Official Journal of the European Communities                            No C 272/11
launching of pilot and demonstration projects which will         Whereas, owing to the economic and social importance
act as catalysts for the development of a European               of information, the European dimension of the
market, and, by means of its resolution of 19 June 1989           Handynet system is a consideration which cannot be
on the implementation of a plan of priority actions in the       divorced from the completion of the internal market by
field of statistical information: Statistical Programme of       the end of 1992;
the European Communities (1989 to 1992) (*), the
accomplishment, in the short term, of progress in                Whereas the development of the Handynet system,
connection with the European social area, in order to             described in the Commission report submitted to the
provide the statistical back-up for programmes to                 Council and highlighted in two demonstrations in 1988
improve the living and working conditions of citizens;            and 1989, justifies the further development of this system
                                                                  at European level in the various fields of integration on
Whereas the Commission's consultations with the                   the basis of modules relating respectively to prevention,
members instituted by Article 7 of Decision 88/231/EEC            functional rehabilitation, technical aids, education and
of the Advisory Committee (Helios) and the Liaison                training, employment, mobility and transport, creativity,
Group (Helios) as well the cooperation with the repre-            sport and other leisure activities, in order gradually to
sentatives of users and suppliers of information as well as       satisfy the needs, aspirations, and potential of more than
with international experts have made it possible to               30 million people affected by serious handicaps caused
define, in the light of studies and the experience of             by physical or mental impairment in the European
existing data bases in certain Member States, the general         Community;
design of the Handynet system and to resolve the
complex technical problems connected in particular with           Whereas, with a view to ensuring efficiency, the fields of
its multilingual nature;                                          the Handynet system to be implemented by way of
                                                                  priority in the years 1990 and 1991 should be defined;
Whereas, during the initial phase relating to the coordi-         whereas the first step therefore should be the finalization
nation and further development of the Handynet System             and entry into operation of the Handyaids module
(May 1988 to end of 1989), the Commission has, in                 during first half of 1990; whereas, in accordance with
accordance with the Helios programme, applied priority            the invitation from the Council of 12 June 1989, work
to the further development and updating of 'Handyaids'            should begin on the implementation of another module
as the first module of the Handynet system; whereas the           of the Handynet system so as to achieve a better
Council has agreed to review this system and to take a            knowledge of the social realities affecting disabled
decision concerning the terms for its continuation by             people and of their situation in relation to employment;
 1 January 1990, on the basis of the report submitted by
the Commission;                                                   Whereas the amount necessary for carrying out the
                                                                  priority activities provided for under the Handynet
Whereas the first module of the Handynet system will              System in the years 1990 and 1991 is comprised in the
 have implications on the social level insofar as it will          amount estimated necessary for the activities of the
 make a considerable contribution towards improving the
                                                                   Helios programme as a whole,
 fundamental conditions for the integration of the
 disabled, technical      aids constituting      a primary
 consideration in the training and vocational rehabili-            HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:
 tation, employment, education, and autonomous living
 of persons in this category, in particular from the point                                  Article 1
 of view of their mobility, and their return home;
                                                                   The European Community computerized information
 Whereas, on the economic level, it is recognized that             system on disability questions, known as Handynet shall
 information plays a fundamental role in the development           be continued under the Helios programme for the period
 of commerce and industry by contributing to the vigour            1 January 1990 to 31 December 1991.
 and coherence of the European economy as a whole;
 whereas this first module of the Handynet system will                                       Article 2
 ensure transparency in a specific sector of the European
                                                                   Within the amount estimated necessary for the Helios
 market and will doubtless have many beneficial effects
                                                                   programme, priority shall be given to the following acti-
 for the disabled in terms of quality and price of products
 by stimulating consumption, production and competition,           vities :
 thus giving rise to economies of scale at the level of both       — completion and putting into operation of the
 production and distribution; whereas the effects of the                Handyaids module on technical aids intended for
 transparency of the Community market will also serve                   persons affected by impaired motor, visual, hearing,
 the interests of those in charge of social policy who, at              mental or communication faculties,
  national, regional or local level, assume a considerable
 part of the burden of financing technical aids;                   — development of a new module relating to the
                                                                        employment of the disabled in the free economy or in
                                                                        protected jobs on the basis of data bases existing in
  (') OJ No C 161, 28. 6. 1989, p. 1.                                   the Member States.