What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

The EU Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU establish equality as a cornerstone of EU law. The fundamental right to free movement of persons is established by Article 21 of TFEU and Article 45 of the Charter. However the exercise of this right is very often not a reality for persons with disabilities who face significant barriers travelling to and visiting other Member States for work, tourism etc. Even where they do manage to do so, services, including passenger transport services, and other activities, facilities and infrastructure are regularly very difficult or even impossible to access.

The introduction of a new European Disability Card (EDC) and updated European Parking Card for persons with disabilities (EPC) should help to address these obstacles and make it easier for persons with disabilities to travel across the EU by ensuring they can, on an equal basis with nationals, access special conditions, preferential treatment, and parking rights when visiting another Member State. The binding nature of the proposal and the expansion of the scope as compared to the pilot project are very welcome indeed.

Nevertheless, the area of social benefits, assistance and protection is unfortunately not addressed. Currently, access to these supports is lost when a person with disabilities moves to another Member State to work, study or take part in an EU mobility programme and the wait to obtain them via reassessment of disability status in the new Member State can take months or even years. In the intervening period, persons with disabilities are without the support that helps ensure their inclusion and personal autonomy - principles enshrined in the UNCRPD, which all Member States and the EU itself are a party to. This creates a huge barrier in persons with disabilities truly enjoying their fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with others - in essence these freedoms are reserved for those without disabilities or those wealthy enough to cover the extra costs resulting from their disability out of their own pocket. This is not real equality and is unacceptable in a ‘Social Europe’. The draft report therefore includes such benefits, assistance and protection for EDC holders for the period in which their disability status is being reassessed where they move for employment, education or to participate in an EU mobility programme.

The draft report further aims to strengthen the Commission proposal by, inter alia, expressly providing that the EDC can never be required as proof in order to access or exercise existing rights for persons with disabilities in other Union or national law, that competent authorities issuing or renewing either card must do so free of charge and within a reasonable period that does not exceed 60 days, as well as ensuring the right of persons with disabilities to appeal decisions by authorities concerning the cards.

As regards the EPC the Commission should gather, within an EU database, information to be provided by Member States’ public authorities concerning what the different parking conditions and facilities offered in each Member State are at local, regional and national level. This will greatly facilitate persons with disabilities in planning and organising the travel the cards aim to encourage.

Regarding provisions on avoiding risks of fraud or forgery, it is important that any measures taken to achieve this aim do not interfere with the rights and interests of persons with disabilities using the card correctly or lead in any way to stigmatisation.

Measures concerning availability and accessibility of information, as well as awareness raising measures, have also been strengthened and include an EU awareness raising campaign to be undertaken by the Commission, a dedicated EU website to gather information on the conditions and rules, practices, and procedures to issue, renew or withdraw as well as how to obtain, use and renew the cards in the different Member States. Member States shall also be obliged to establish national websites outlining the relevant special conditions and preferential treatment offered by public authorities so that persons with disabilities, service providers and the public in general are informed of the advantages the cards entail.

Finally, amendments to strengthen the enforcement of the directive and ensure the right to redress including through adequate compensation as well as to better involve the representative organisations of persons with disabilities in the implementation and evaluation of the cards have been tabled.