This briefing provides a pre-legislative synthesis of the positions of national, regional and local governmental organisations on the European Commission’s forthcoming proposal on the European Disability Card. It forms part of an EPRS series offering a summary of the pre-legislative state of play and advance consultation on a range of key European Commission priorities during its 5-year term in office. It seeks to present the current state of affairs, to examine how existing policy is working on the ground, and to identify best practice and ideas for the future on the part of governmental organisations at all levels of the European system of multi-level governance. EPRS analysis of the positions of partner organisations at European Union (EU), national, regional and local levels suggests that they would like the following main considerations to be reflected in discussion of the forthcoming proposal on the European Disability Card: * Governmental organisations at local, regional, national and EU level support the European Disability Card initiative, going beyond the eight Member States that have tested the card as a pilot project (Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Malta, Romania, and Slovenia). * These eight Member States have continued to innovate, for instance by improving communication with new websites, and increasing the overall number of benefits providers. At least one Member State is going to issue the EU Disability Card automatically as soon as citizens receive recognition of their disability status. Lessons learned include the need to coordinate among the organisations in charge of the card’s implementation. Regional and local authorities played a role in all of the governance models used to implement the card. * Among the Member States that have not yet tested the card, some governmental organisations at national level are concerned that the European Disability Card should not raise expectations that cannot be met, and that the card can co-exist with different rules at national level. Other organisations would be open to expanding the card’s application beyond culture, leisure and sport, and would open up the list to other sectors, such as transport, health, employment and education. * There is broad agreement that the future European Disability Card should not be merged with the EU Parking Card. Organisations from some Member States suggest that, while remaining distinct, the two cards could be linked. There is also agreement that disabled citizens need access to both a digital and physical card.
Source : © European Union, 2023 – EP