The Diplomat
The president of the ONCE Social Group, Miguel Carballeda, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, highlighted yesterday the “advances in disability matters” during the recent Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU.
“This is a resounding report because it shows that Spain and Europe have complied,” said Albares during the presentation of the ONCE report on the Spanish Presidency of the EU on disability, held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Madrid and in which Miguel Carballeda gave the minister a copy of the document in ink and braille.
Among these advances, the minister continued, the launch of the European Accessibility Center “through a consortium led, precisely, by the ONCE Foundation” stood out; and the provisional agreement to create, “finally, a European Disability Card and a European Parking Card for people with disabilities.”
Other advances, according to Albares, were the organization of “the high-level meeting on Disability in Palma, where it was agreed, with 21 Member States and the European Disability Forum, a Declaration on the right to vote and accessibility to participation politicians“; of the high-level forum on Aging in Lugo, in which “the confluence between old age and disability” was addressed, and of the European Accessibility Congress, held in Madrid.
The Spanish Presidency, Albares continued, was “decisively” committed to social rights, offering answers to the 84 million European citizens with disabilities. Likewise, he assured that the Government will continue to collaborate with the ONCE Social Group, with civil society, with the rest of the member states and with the European institutions “to continue expanding and deepening the rights of people with disabilities.”
For his part, Miguel Carballeda mentioned, among the achievements of the Presidency, the launch of the European Accessibility Center ‘AccesibleEU’, “coordinated and led from Spain by the ONCE Foundation”, one of the “emblematic initiatives proposed by the European Commission in the Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030” and which brings together the national authorities responsible for implementing and guaranteeing compliance with accessibility standards with experts and professionals from all areas of accessibility.
He also highlighted the introduction of the QR code on electoral ballots as a necessary tool when it comes to guaranteeing the right to vote for people with disabilities and recalled that, within the framework of the high-level conference on the rights of people with disabilities, Held in November 2023, the Spanish EU Presidency issued a declaration to expand the right to vote for people with disabilities.
