The focus of this publication is on showing progress of the EU and its Member States towards the goals and targets defined in the Europe 2020 strategy. The analysis of long-term trends, as described by the strategy’s headline indicators, is accompanied by additional contextual information, which improves understanding of the driving forces behind the developments that these indicators show. The current edition builds upon and updates the previous releases. The publication provides analyses based on the most recent statistics in the five thematic areas of employment, R&D and innovation, climate change and energy, education, and poverty and social exclusion. Each area is analysed in a dedicated chapter. An executive summary outlines the main statistical trends observed in the indicators. Additional country profiles describe the progress of each Member State towards its national Europe 2020 targets
This report analyses the situation in the 28 EU Member States with regard to obligations to provide reasonable accommodation outside the field of employment. More specifically, the report outlines the duties contained in Member States’ laws and policies with respect to reasonable accommodation in the areas covered by the 2008 proposal of the European Commission for a directive to protect people from discrimination on the ground of disability, as well as discrimination on a number of other grounds (henceforth 2008 proposal). The 2008 proposal addresses the fields of social protection, including social security, healthcare and social housing; education; and access to, and supply of, goods and services, including housing. It seeks to prohibit six kinds of discrimination including, in the context of disability, an unjustified denial of a reasonable accommodation
"The adoption of the Employment Equality Directive in 2000 extended the protection against discrimination provided under EU law. By explicitly obliging the Member States to prohibit discrimination in employment on the grounds of religion or belief, age, disability and sexual orientation, the general principles set out in the Treaties became more effective, and some minimum standards are now common throughout Europe. At the same time, specific exceptions with regard to all or only some of those grounds permit the continuation of certain measures that were already in place in most countries, which has led to different national practices, especially with regard to age. Additional provisions on horizontal issues such as access to justice and sanctions, dissemination of information and necessary dialogue, left the details to be established by Member States according to their laws and customs. This analysis builds on the available documents and expertise in order to facilitate the debate on the implementation of the Employment Equality Directive to date and on how best to follow it up"
"This in-depth analysis, produced by the Ex-Post Impact Assessment Unit of the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), looks into the state of play of the implementation by the European Union of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD), after the first round of the review process. The Convention's overarching principles entail mainstreaming of disability rights across all policies and within all institutions. This paper analyses the institutional arrangements required to monitor the implementation process, and subsequently puts the recommendations of the CRPD Committee ('Concluding Observations') into a broader context, outlining the progress made so far and the challenges ahead"
This report focuses on reasonable accommodation duties for disabled people in employment. It also addresses the link between reasonable accommodation and accessibility and considers other legal requirements that may be used to enhance the accessibility of workplaces. Legal developments at UN and EU level are examined, together with developments in 31 countries (the 28 EU Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). This study is derived primarily from a series of country specific reports compiled by the national expert members of the European network of legal experts in gender equality and non-discrimination. Two legal instruments are used to provide the evaluative framework for this study – the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the Employment Equality Directive. The meaning of ‘disability’, for purposes of the Employment Equality Directive, has been the subject of numerous Court of Justice (CJEU) decisions. Inconsistency and lack of clarity are discussed and recommendations are proposed. An annex of country specific information is provided
This report covers the period of the entry into force of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) for the European Union (EU) in January 2011 to December 2013. It begins with a brief introduction to the institutions of the EU, and some key legal and structural information. The report then focuses on the key articles of the CRPD (articles 1 to 33) and provides details on the EU's strategy towards implementation, including discussion of the measures taken, and information on the relevant EU legislation. This report would be particularly useful to anyone interested in understanding how the EU has implemented the CRPD so far