E.M.E.R.G.E. - European Mobility Enabling to Reduce th Ground of Exclusion - European Project hosted by Istituto Sturzo in partnership with ESA and FCASEC

Social inclusion beyond the European Year 2010

Society and poeple with disabilities: future challenges for the EU

giovedì, May 26th, 2011

The fight against poverty and exclusion is still a key challenge for EU. The Member States are committed to reinforcing the institutional mechanism adopting an integrated system, considering themes on social inclusion in national-level policies.

Promoting inclusion means to work in order to assure equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation and to guarantee unquestionable dignity and participation opportunities to all. All the citizens should not be left apart in the personal life and work but actively involved in their community and in the European context.

It also means to act with the aim of making the society truly inclusive and capable of adapting to correspond to the citizens’ concrete rights.

Even if there is an intrinsic solidarity which fully acknowledges the need of adaptations for people with mild disabilities in European societies, people with severe or multiple disabilities need more help in terms of human rights and inclusion. Many disabled people continue to suffer discrimination with regard to the lack of equal recognition before the law and justice. Member States have to remedy these deficiencies including electoral rights.

Compared to the average, people with disabilities have more chance of being poor; around 80 million people with disabilities are poor, including one million deaf people.

In line with what emerged during the European Year for Combating Poverty and social, we need to consider that it is impossible to reduce poverty without integrating people with disabilities in the labor market and to adjust policies supporting incomes in case of disability.

The current systems of education and training do not prevent the dropout among people with disabilities. Its high rate leads to greater social disadvantage and employment especially in this time of economic crisis.

Succeeding in the workplace is still very difficult for people with disabilities, but there are good examples that could show the possibility of a change involving all the EU countries in implementing non-discriminatory and inclusive policies.

An example of this success is the experience of Hungarian Ádám Kósa EPP deputy who oversaw the report on "European strategy on disability 2010-2020. 

An example of this success is the experience of Ádám Kósa, MEP of  PPE, author of the report on EU’s disability strategy 2010-2020.

An interesting interview with Ádám Kósa on problems that disabled people face is published on the European Parliament website here.

Bulgaria in the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion

martedì, November 9th, 2010

2010 was announced by the European Commission as Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. This is the year, during which European citizens should pay special attention to social groups at risk, groups that are deprived of active social life and/or active participation in the labor market. These groups most often include disabled people, people suffering from long-term unemployment, ethnic minorities. The European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion aims to raise the awareness of society regarding the groups at risk and to contribute to increasing social tolerance and improving of policies targeting those groups. 2010 is a call for decisive measures in order to fight the causes of poverty in order to secure a respected active role of each individual in society.
The faces of the campaign in Bulgaria and goodwill ambassadors who will promote the concepts of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion include popular people, as well as people who belong to social groups at risk. The popular faces of the campaign include the pop singer Vladimir Ampov-Graffa, as well as the frontman of the popular pop group D2 Deyan Kamenov. “My goal is to inform people that need help about how the state can actually help them, because everyone deserve to get education, to work and sustain their families”, Deyan says. Little Dzhem from a small village near Plovdiv is also one of the faces of the campaign. Kapka Panayotova, chairman of “Center for Independent Life” Foundation has been working in the field of protection of human rights and rights of people in disadvantaged position, a representative of whom she is herself, for many years.

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Disabled people: fighting poverty through inclusion

venerdì, July 9th, 2010

People with disabilities are full citizens who have equal rights, are entitled to dignity, equal treatment, independent living and full participation in society as non – disabled people. Despite equal rights for non – disabled people, they have more difficulty in finding a job with a decent income. Reaching a good level of education is another problem they have to face; even when they reach high education studies they are much less employed in high level jobs. People with disabilities represent one sixth of the overall EU working population but their employment rate is comparatively low.
2003 was the European Year of People with Disabilities and one of the main objectives was achieving equal rights for people with disabilities and since this year the Commission’s disability strategy has been to make equal opportunities a reality. The Commission’s strategy is to integrate the disability issues in all UE policies: this is made since 2003 through the EU Disability action plan (DAP), a “mainstreaming” strategy. The DAP is developed in 2 years phases. Each phase is focused on one special issue – the 2008-2009 DAP focus is accessibility. The Commission is preparing the new strategy for 2010-2020¹.
The aim of DAP strategy for 2003-2010 was to enable disabled people to play an active role in society, improving employment and education prospect to increase their access to goods and services. Member States design their own strategy for the inclusion of disabled people in the labour market, in educational initiatives and in all other initiatives that can help disabled people living independently, get transportation, access to information, access to buildings and infrastructures. European Union is committed to respect the Human Rights of all people, but the fundamental rights of millions of disabled people (disabled people in the EU are 65 million) are regularly violated in many Member States².

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