Some answers but still many questions for inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities and their families.
The European Commission presented its proposal on the next EU long-term budget (MFF) 2028-2035. The new budget will be up to 2 trillion euros.
A lot of money will impact the life of the 20 million people with intellectual disabilities and their families.
The proposal serves as a basis for negotiation with the EU Council (EU countries) and the EU Parliament for the next 2 years. It will probably not stay as it is now.
Inclusion Europe presented how we think EU money should be used for inclusion of people with intellectual and their families.
In this article, we summarise the EU budget proposal:
- Highlighting points that are relevant to the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities and their families
- Highlighting the questions that need to be solved in a good way for inclusion
- Inviting people with intellectual disabilities and their representative organisations to speak to their governments ahead of the negotiations!
14% of EU money for EU countries to be spent on social commitments
The National and Regional Partnership Plans is the new system for EU countries to spend EU money (865 billion euros).
It merges some funds (like Cohesion Funds, and Agriculture funds) with a focus on achieving results.
These plans aim for EU money to be used by EU countries and their regions to achieve some common goals like: social inclusion, employment and skills, housing, economic development etc.
14% of the budget for the national plans will be used to achieve EU social committments.
One of these commitments is inclusion of people with disabilities.
The questions are:
- Is this 14% target a requirement or an aspiration?
- How much of the 14% will go to the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities?
The European Social Fund (ESF+) remains
The Cohesion Policy (400 billion euros) and its European Social Fund will continue to be a major tool of the National and regional Partnership plans to achieve EU social commitments.
(400 billion euros is on paper the same amount as the current Cohesion Policy budget, but a loss in terms of share of the budget, 1/3 against less than 1/4 for the proposed budget, and regarding inflation).
The European Social Fund will continue to support employment, education, and social inclusion. It is what we’ve been advocating for.
It is the most relevant fund for inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities and their families.
The questions are:
- How much of this 400 billion will be for the European Social Fund? (The current ESF+ is up to 100 billion euros)
- How much of this fund will be reserved for social inclusion? (In the previous period it was 25%)
- Will inclusion of people with disabilities be specific objective of the Cohesion Policy?
- Will deinstitutionalisation become one of these specific objectives?
More money for education, skills, culture and equality
In parallel, the EU will continue to invest directly in projects on education, skills and equality.
Erasmus+ will remain an EU Funding program with an increase of 1.5 points. (40.8 billion euros).
It will continue to fund exchanges and training related to education, skills, and youth projects. Erasmus+ has a focus on inclusion of people with disabilities.
AgoraEU is the new programme for equality with an increase of 2 points. (It now merges with programme funding for culture projects).
Many organisations advocating for the rights of people with disabilities, like Inclusion Europe, benefit from this money.
And many organisations use this money to do specific projects to advance the rights of people with disabilities.
The questions are:
- How much of this money will be served specifically to people with disabilities?
- Will there be some specific objectives to advance the rights and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities?
- Will NGOs continue to get funding for their advocacy work to advance disability rights?
Respecting rights: a “non-negotiable” condition
EU countries will not be able to receive EU money if fundamental rights are not respected, including the rights of people with disabilities.
This condition will be important to make sure EU money is not used against the rights of people with disabilities.
Under the current EU budget, EU countries are not supposed to receive any EU money if they don’t implement the UN CRPD (Horizontal enabling conditions) and if they don’t have measures to shift from institutional to community-based care (thematic enabling conditions).
The questions are:
- How will these conditions be set? Will there still be specific horizontal and thematic “enabling conditions”?
- How will EU money be tracked to make sure those conditions are met?
- What concrete sanctions are going to be taken if the conditions are not met?
“Partnership” should still guide the use EU money
The budget proposed reaffirms that “partnership” will remain important, especially for the cohesion policy.
It means EU countries are supposed to consult with representative organisations at national or regional level to decide how to use EU money.
In practice, and even though this is a rule under the current budget, people with intellectual disabilities and their representative organisations do not often take part in discussions.
The questions are:
- Will EU countries be required to include disability organisations in discussions on how to use EU money?
- Will countries be required to provide measures to enable their participation (like accessibility measures)?
- Will self-advocacy organisations be supported to take part?
Budget aiming for results
This was one of the main aims of the National and Regional plans. To be able to use EU money, EU countries will have to set goals, do reforms, and achieve results.
The questions are:
- Is it likely that goals will be set for social inclusion, and that achievement of those goals will condition payment of EU money?
- How specific and ambitious will be the goals set by EU countries for the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities?
- How will results on rights and social inclusion be assessed?
- Will EU countries be required to share specific data and monitoring mechanisms for the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities?
- What will be the concrete consequences if goals are not achieved?
Easier access to funding?
One of the other goals of the proposed budget was to make use of EU Funds easier.
Many organisations complain about the burden of doing EU projects.
With this proposed EU budget, the Commission looks for simplifying procedures and reporting, so projects can focus on results.
The questions are:
- Which measures will be taken so non-profit and smaller oganisations can easier apply for EU funds?
- Will information be accessible for people with intellectual disabilities and their representative organisations?
Inclusion Europe continues to advocate for better use of EU money for inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities and their families
You can also impact these discussions in your country! Countries, their governments, have a big say about how EU money is used.
You can speak to your government about how EU money should be used for inclusion.