Projects for accessibility of persons with disabilities "The removal of the anti-discrimination clause from the European Commission’s cohesion policy proposal might jeopardize access to important funding for European citizens, notably the disabled". The message was echoed during a seminar held a few days ago at the European Parliament, promoted by MEP Danuta Hübner, president of the Commission for Regional Development and by the European Disability Forum. "We welcome the European Commission’s proposal on the Structural Funds package of October 6 2011 said Yannis Vardakastanis, president of the Forum which stipulates that national authorities are bound to use these funds to implement projects supporting accessibility of persons with disabilities, that promote gender equality, against discrimination and to ensure broadbrand access to Internet services". Often persons with handicaps are unable to take part in social and economic life fully because of physical barriers, and because they are discriminated. Moreover, the difficulties encountered in accessing education or employment represent a major risk of social exclusion and higher poverty rates. "For the EU, the elimination of the barriers that hinder the integration of disabled persons, ensuring that they enjoy full rights like everyone else is a social duty and it reflects the Commission and its Member State’s pledge ratified in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities of 2007, stipulated also in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (art.10)", pointed out MEP Hübner. "Only if solidarity becomes the paradigm underlying future decisions will Europe be capable to exit the crisis and undertake a quality leap. But the latest debates in the European Council could undermine present achievements, jeopardizing the funding of key projects for people with disabilities", concluded Ádám Kósa president of the Disability Intergroup of the European Parliament."Children’s rights at the heart of EU agenda"Hundreds of thousands of children in the Eastern Neighbourhood and the Western Balkans continue facing tremendous protection challenges: institutionalization, violence, discrimination and exploitation remain a cruel reality severely affecting children and societies. The theme was at the heart of the conference organized by MEPs Traian Ungureanu and Leonidas Donskis past May 8 at the European Parliament, who shared their own experiences in Romania and Lithuania. "It is thanks to Europe if politics have been adopted to promote the rights of children and their protection". "Owing to the intervention of the EU – Donskis said in few years we have made remarkable achievements, but more can be done to systemize procedures and step up strategies". During the event Daniela Buzducea, Director Advocacy of World Vision Romania, presented a report on the highlights of the reforms carried out in Romania in the period 1997 2007, which "enabled many children to reach high living standards". "When this project was launched in 1997, without the influence of the EU, many children would have been denied a future the expert underlined -. Now Europe must once more be the agent of a change, given the ongoing crucial transition phase whereby children have to be at the centre of the European agenda and all MEPs have the duty to fight for new and substantial reforms for them".Commission: a website against discriminations "There are two main kinds of discrimination: direct and indirect. Direct discrimination happens when a person receives a treatment less favourable than others on the basis of ethnic or racial grounds, of religion or belief, handicap, age or sexual orientation". By indirect discrimination is meant "an apparently neutral praxis or criteria" which could "create a disadvantage to some people for reasons tied to ethic or racial origin, religion or creed, handicap, age or sexual orientation, unless such conduct is justified by a legitimate purpose". The European Commission opened a website in all official languages of the EU, dedicated to all forms of discrimination in Europe, or which could represent a threat to cultural, ethnic and religious "diversity" typical of the Old Continent. The website is http://ec.europa.eu/justice/fdad/cms/stopdiscrimination.
