EPR Joins the European Day of Persons with Disabilities Conference 2025

EPR Joins the European Day of Persons with Disabilities Conference 2025

Between 4-5 December, EPR participated in the European Day of Persons with Disabilities Conference organised by the European Commission in Brussels, where persons with disabilities and stakeholders representing persons with disabilities, services, national and regional governments, and EU institutions exchanged and discussed about key topics in the EU, and provided enlightening testimonials about their personal experiences and recommendations to make Europe more accessible and inclusive.

Commissioner for Equality and Preparedness, Hadja Lahbib, underlined the need to make the next EU Budget disability-inclusive, and how all EU policy must include disability rights as a basic rule including Preparedness policy.

In the first panel, Ana Carla Pereira announced the European Commission’s work regarding the upcoming actions of the European Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2021-2030), including past and ongoing consultations with stakeholders, in which EPR has and will continue engaging. MEP Li Anderson, EESC Member Marie-Pierre Le Breton, and UNCRPD Committee member Markus Schefer underlined the importance of the future actions of the strategy to further promote independent living, skills and employment of persons with disabilities, and address intersectionality.

In a second panel, focusing on the post-2028 EU Budget, Franck Conrad (Head of Unit at DG BUDG*, European Commission) introduced the new Multiannual Financial Framework approach to funds for social cohesion, explaining that a minimum of 14% of the National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs) will need to be dedicated to social cohesion, and emphasized shift from siloed funds (ESF, ERDF) to integrated plans combining investments and reforms. However, participants expressed concerns about a loss of earmarking related to social inclusion and subsequent uncertainty on disability-specific funding. As Maria Tomazou (Social Attaché at the permanent representation of Cyprus to the EU) expressed, ESF+ funds have been instrumental to kickstart and maintain services that are essential for persons with disabilities in Cyprus, and it is the case in other EU Member States. Another key concern is the fact that the Commission’s proposal of the EU Budget does not include the implementation of the UNCRPD as a horizontal principle that EU Member States need to fulfil to receive funds, only referring to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. 

In the third and last panel, Han Das, Deputy Director-General at DG ECHO**, introduced the EU’s Preparedness Strategy, as well as a set of accessible guidelines for persons with disabilities on what to do in an emergency, as well as a training for first responders to address diverse disability needs, which the European Commission expects to publish in 2026. Ruslan Topchan, Veteran of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, provided a personal testimony about the lessons learned in Ukraine on how to support persons with disabilities. Jari Honkanen (Department for Rescue Services of the government of Finland, and Veera Florica Rajala (President of the Finnish Disability Forum) introduced respectively the Finnish Sendai Network, which aims to boost preparedness in the country, and underlined the importance of persons with disabilities to be trained in preparedness. Delphine LeMaire (Policy Officer at the European Union of the Deaf) and Lidia Best (President at the European Federation of Hard of Hearing People) stressed the importance of accessible emergency communication, especially for deaf and hard of hearing people.

* DG BUDG is the European Commission’s Directorate General for Budgets, and was in charge of drafting the proposal of the 2028-2034 EU long-term budget (also known as the Multiannual Financial Framework).

** DG ECHO is the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, in charge of the EU’s Preparedness Strategy.

More information about the EU Day of Persons with Disabilities Conference available here.