Merely taking note of disability is not enough
The first meeting of this ad hoc committee last summer postponed a decision whether a binding convention should be negotiated.
Last January, the European Commission clearly indicated its support for such a convention.
It formally asked EU member state governments to mandate it to attend the second ad hoc committee meeting and, assisted by national civil servants, to negotiate on behalf of the EU. I believe that the member states should accede to the commission’s requests.
Such a decision, I believe, would increase the likelihood of a positive decision to work towards a rights-based United Nations convention as well as hasten the actual negotiations leading to such an instrument.
In response to a European parliamentary question I recently put to the council, the Greek presidency said that council had “not yet discussed” the commission’s requests but would so “in due course.”
However, they also said that all member states had committed themselves to a rights-based approach in a common European position paper adopted in March this year.
Despite this, on June 6, the EU Health Council (with Minister Michael Martin present) adopted a resolution on the social integration of people with disabilities which merely took note of the commission’s requests.
In the few days remaining before the second ad hoc committee meeting, the Government should come clean on this issue.
Will they support a mandate for the commission to negotiate on our behalf?
Mandating the commission to lead the way towards a binding UN legal instrument would not only strengthen the rights of people with disabilities worldwide, it would also enable the EU to provide the kind of international progressive leadership it has shown over recent years on climate change, the International Criminal Court and the abolition of the death penalty.
Proinsias de Rossa, MEP,
Vice-President,
Socialist Group,
43, Molesworth Street,
Dublin 2.
pderossa@europarl.eu.int
www.derossa.com
