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REPORT (2025/2057(INI))

On the EU strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities post-2024

A-10-2025-0211

Committee on Employment and Social Affairs · Rapporteur: Rosa Estaràs Ferragut

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The report evaluates the EU strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities 2021-2030 and calls for an updated strategy for 2025-2030, addressing gaps in employment, accessibility, independent living, and non-discrimination. It demands new flagship initiatives, binding measures, and better monitoring, including a common EU definition of disability and mid-term evaluation. It calls for specific actions on employment, such as an EU-funded employment and skills guarantee, and on accessibility, including strengthening AccessibleEU and extending the European Accessibility Act. It urges measures to combat violence against women with disabilities, ensure equal access to justice, and support families and carers. It insists on mainstreaming disability rights in EU funding and external action, and on improving data collection and governance.

Committee position. The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs calls on the Commission to present an updated strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities for 2025-2030, with new flagship initiatives and binding measures, and makes numerous recommendations across policy areas.

Key points

  1. Calls on the Commission to propose a common EU-wide definition of 'disability' in line with the UNCRPD.
  2. Calls for new flagship initiatives for the remainder of the strategy's tenure and for an updated strategy for 2025-2030 without delay.
  3. Calls for a comprehensive mid-term evaluation of the strategy, including a review of all EU legislation for compatibility with the UNCRPD.
  4. Calls for binding measures, including legal instruments, to ensure uniform protection of disability rights across the Union.
  5. Calls for the inclusion of disability rights in the post-2027 multiannual financial framework and for dedicated earmarked funding lines.
  6. Calls for the ESF+ to prioritize independent living and deinstitutionalisation, and for a directive on minimum income.
  7. Calls for strengthening AccessibleEU into a permanent regulatory agency and for extending the European Accessibility Act's scope.
  8. Calls for an EU-funded employment and skills guarantee for persons with disabilities, without age restrictions.
  9. Calls for the criminalisation of forced sterilisation of persons with disabilities and for measures to combat violence against women with disabilities.
  10. Calls for an EU action plan on deinstitutionalisation and for support for families and informal carers.
  11. Calls for the EU to support candidate countries in aligning with accessibility standards and to present an EU disability action plan for external action.
  12. Calls for improved data collection on institutionalised populations and for the inclusion of 'equal access and non-discrimination' in the EU Urban Agenda.

Who is affected

  • Persons with disabilities in the EU, who would benefit from new rights and protections.
  • EU institutions, including the Commission, Parliament, and Council, which must ensure accessibility and inclusive employment.
  • Member States, which are called on to implement measures on employment, accessibility, and deinstitutionalisation.
  • Employers and companies, which would face quotas and incentives for recruiting persons with disabilities.
  • Women with disabilities, who are targeted for specific protections against violence and for leadership support.

Figures and deadlines

  • 27% of the EU's population over 16 had some form of disability in 2023, amounting to 101 million people.
  • Only 51.3% of active, working-age persons with disabilities are employed, compared to 75.6% of persons without disabilities.
  • 28.84% of persons with disabilities lived in or were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2023.
  • Women with disabilities are two to five times more likely to experience violence than women without disabilities.
  • Only 20% of women with disabilities work full time, compared to 48% of women without disabilities.
  • An estimated 1.4 million children and adults with disabilities under 65 reside in segregated institutions.
  • Calls for a dedicated budget of at least EUR 20 billion for the European Child Guarantee.

Legal basis: Articles 2 and 3(3) of the Treaty on European Union; Articles 2, 9, 10, 19 and 216(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union