The EU’s action to improve the lives of people with disabilities has made little difference in recent years, as getting a job and fighting poverty remain a struggle, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) has found. 

ECA’s report, published on Thursday (12 October), found that the EU strategy for people with disabilities, in place for some 20 years now, does not bring improvement on the ground in terms of employment participation or the rate of poverty. 

“EU actions had limited practical impact,” Stef Blok, the ECA member in charge of the audit, told a press briefing on Thursday. 

For the past decade, the auditors saw nearly a stagnation or very little uptake when it comes to improving the opportunities for people with disabilities to play an equal part in everyday life in important areas. 

This affects around a quarter of EU citizens over 16, or around 87 million people, who have a self-declared disability such as a physical or mental impairment. Given the ageing EU population, this number is likely to increase. 

The disability employment gap in 2021 remained almost the same as in 2014 when records began, with only half of the population of people with disabilities having jobs, compared to 75 % of those without disabilities, according to Eurostat. 

In 2021, persons with disabilities were at a greater risk of poverty or social exclusion, at 30%, than those without disabilities – at 19% – and the risk has not changed significantly since 2015.

“Persons with disabilities in the EU continue to face an uphill struggle, getting a job and fighting poverty, as well as barriers to their freedom of movement,” Blok said. 

The EU’s action on disabilities dates back to 1997 when the Treaty of Amsterdam set the first anti-discrimination provisions.

The current  Strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities 2021-2030 was adopted in March 2021. According to the Commission’s press release, it is set to ensure people with disabilities “full participation in society, on an equal basis with others in the EU”. 

According to the auditors, in the current strategy, the Commission addressed most earlier shortcomings and proposed a number of flagship inclusion initiatives such as the European Disability Card and the Disability Employment Package – both of which are steps in the right direction. But “some problems remain unsolved,” Blok said.

While social policy, including a policy towards people with disabilities, based on the EU Treaty is a national competence, “the EU has a clear role to play and we found the Commission willing and committed to do it,” he underlined. 

Lack of data and monitoring

So what went wrong on the Commission’s part?

“There has not yet been a review of all important EU legislation to assess compliance with the [UN] convention, and relevant legislation on the rights of persons with disability has stopped,” Blok said. 

Progress in this area is hampered by the stalling of the EU’s Equal Treatment Directive and the member states’ slow pace in incorporating the European Accessibility Act into national law. 

The link with EU funding also remains weak, and the Commission does not track how much EU money actually goes into supporting people with disabilities, something which could illustrate how EU funding has improved their situation.

“We found that the [Commission’s] monitoring frameworks design does not provide information on which you can conclude that EU funding helped to improve the situation of persons with disability,” Blok said. 

Another drawback pointed out by the auditors is the lack of data and accurate reflection of persons with disabilities across the EU. 

“We identified shortcomings in the EU statistics concerning coverage frequency and level of detail,” Blok underlined adding that the Commission should obtain more comparable data. 

The lack of data is felt when trying to evaluate the Commission’s commitment outlined in the strategy: to lead by example when it comes to employing people with disabilities and ask other EU institutions to do the same. 

“We looked at the Parliament, the Council, the Commission, the Court of Justice, and the European Court of Auditors as employers given this commitment and request. However, so far the available data do not make it possible to assess whether the EU institutions have achieved their ambitions,” Blok said. 

The situation across member states varies 

The auditors also carried out audit checks in four member states: Spain, the Netherlands, Romania, and Sweden.

It turned out that member states provide very different support and benefits for people with disabilities, and have different ways of deciding who is eligible, ECA’s press release said. 

“We looked at national expenditure on disability for 2020 as a percentage of GDP, and we found that the criteria used to grant disability status differed between member states and therefore, we could not reconcile national data with EU-level data based on surveys in which participants self-declared their disability status,” Blok highlighted.

National government spending on social protection benefits for disability averages just over 2 % of GDP, from less than 1 % in Malta to 5 % in Denmark. 

“The country spending most spends five times more than the country spending less. This is a national competence, and the difference is so huge that it also clearly shows that these differences won’t be easy to overcome if you should wish to do so,” Blok stressed.

Reacting to the report, the president of the European Disability Forum, Yannis Vardakastanis, criticised the member states’ action.

“In our opinion, EU countries bear the brunt of the responsibility regarding the limited impact of EU action by watering down legislation and, as the report pointed out, foregoing implementation,” he stressed in a press release.

“We need closer scrutiny of the EU’s actions in all areas, whether they are related to developing policies and legislation, funding actions to support persons with disabilities or ensuring proposed policies are actually implemented by member states,” he added.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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