FIMITIC

27 April 2010 - In case you don’t remember the 1million4disability campaign, 1 364 984 citizens are still waiting for an answer from the EU institutions. The European Parliament called yesterday for concrete and adequate actions from the European Commission.

In 2007, the disability movement gathered the impressive 1 364 984 signatures calling for comprehensive protection of the rights of persons with disabilities in the European law. The interest generated by the campaign demonstrated the strong support of the wider European population for elimination of the barriers faced by people with disabilities in their daily lives.

Publicly presented to the European Commission on 4 October 2007, the signatures did not receive the resonance they deserved from the European decision-makers. Yesterday, long-standing disability activist and former Irish MEP Kathy Sinnott exercised the fundamental rights granted to all European citizens under article 227 of the Treaty on the Functionning of the European Union by submitting a petition to the European Parliament Petitions Committee to adress the neglect of this unprecedented citizens' campaign.

She pointed out at the specificities of disability discrimination and called for adequate attention to be paid to the petition that should be followed up with concrete actions. She was supported by the European Disability Forum, the organization behind the 2007 campaign.

More details on EDF website