Freedom Drivers in the European Parliament

Thursday, 24 September 2009 Last Updated ( Monday, 18 January 2010 )

Freedom drivers in the European Parliament
- welcomed by President Jerzy Buzek
 
The majority of the Freedom drivers were accredited to enter the European Parliament after their rally on the morning of Wednesday 16 September to hand over more than 4 000 signatures from ENIL's P.A. Campaign and the Demands from Freedom Drive 2009 to the President. At the same time we had a meeting with Richard Howitt from the UK, who has chaired the Disability Intergroup in the Parliament for many years. Mr Howitt has been a true supporter of the Independent Living Movement and ENIL for many years, and he understands the social model of disability and the problems we face in our daily life well. All the MEPs from the former Disability Intergroup were invited and 10 joined us. (Many MEPs had meetings with Freedom drivers from their country the day before and we felt that our Demands were received with political energy.)

It was videotaped by Paul Darke. 

 

Executive Director for ENIL Jamie Bolling, (Sweden) opened the meeting. From the panel. Freedom drivers and MEPs were addressed by Richard Howitt (middle, photo), Corina Zolle (ENIL board member, Germany), Ines Bulic from ECCL (European Coalition for Community Living, a project in ENIL), JAG from Sweden (cooperative on personal assistance for people with intellectual impairments) and Gunta Anca (Board Member of the EDF and President of SUSTENTO “The Latvian Umbrella Body for Disability Organizations”).   
 
All stressed the importance of ratifying the UN Convention for Persons with Disabilities and signing the Optional Protocol as soon as possible. The Convention will be a good tool to implement equal possibilities for disabled people in Europe. Article 19 in the Convention is a good tool for developing community services in general and personal assistance and self-direction in particular. This is also the best approach for de-institutionalisation which is an urgent issue on the IL-agenda. More than one million disabled people in Europe are imprisoned in institutions - this is a grave violation of Human Rights and has no place in a civilised society!
 
After the panel, the Freedom drivers were invited to address their questions to the MEPs present. Disabled people from Spain, Germany, Ireland, Slovenia, Belgium, Norway and many other countries stressed the importance of personal assistance, the portability of personal assistance (the possibility to work in another EU country and bring your personal assistance), accessible transportation and the necessity to target disabled people in developing countries through EU foreign aid as a way to include our international colleagues in funding, not exclude them as is the case now.
 
The main message from the Freedom drivers were that mainstream living is the only solution – institutions are not an option – therefore we need a massive political energy in the development of community services and personal assistance.   
 
Towards the end of the meeting President Buzek came in to receive the Freedom drive Demands and the 4 000 plus signatures from the Personal Assistance Campaign. Mr Buzek has been recently elected as President for the EU Parliament. He is from Poland. Disabled people from Poland have never attended the Freedom drive, and we managed to mention that to the President. Maybe we can evaluate his presence politically by welcoming Freedom drivers from Poland to the next Freedom drive, in 2011?
 
Maybe the most important addition to our Demands in 2011 will be to ask the Parliament to turn the content in the UN Convention into an EU Directive. This could be a good way to put political pressure on the implementation of the ideas in the UN Convention.
 
The meeting in the Parliament was made possible because of close cooperation between EDF (European Disability Forum) and ENIL.
                                                                                ENIL President Bente Skansgård, Norway

 

related article: notes of the meeting 

ENIL's President hands over the ENIL Independent Living Petition at the Plenary Session held in the EU Parliament building. from Paul Darke