FIMITIC

Thessalonica, 1-3 March 2003 - As part of the European Year of People with Disabilities 2003, The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the European Disability Forum (EDF) organized the Joint European Conference o­n "Education and life-long learning" in the period between 1-3 March 2003 in Salonica (Greece).

FIMITIC was represented in this very important meeting by Ms. Monica ANTOCI the president of its member Association of Persons with Neuromotor Disability from Romania-AHNR and Board Member of the FIMITIC. She presented the FIMITIC's work emphasizing the importance of the Prague Conference where she mentioned the book: "Towards Employability, Equal Opportunities - Employability for Persons with Disabilities". She handed it to the most important speakers - as she had o­nly 10 copies - but many others were interested to get it.

On this occasion the EDF and the ETUC took the opportunity to reiterate their mutual commitment to equal opportunities in terms of access to the labor market and training for disabled persons. After a general introduction to the problems of education and vocational training for persons with disabilities issues like: Education as an essential factor for integration; Access to continuing training in enterprise, the continuing employment of victims of accidents at work and elsewhere, the use of new technologies and the development of qualifications; Equal treatment for persons with disabilities with respect to working conditions and career development have been discussed within three panels.

All representatives of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the European Disability Forum (EDF) adopted a Declaration which calls o­n all the actors involved to join forces and to do everything possible, to ensure that the issue of disability is treated in a transversal way in all the European UnionÂ’s policies.