From Rome to Nice in a Wheelchair
The Development of a European Disability Policy
Published on 31. July 2006
Book
VI, 44 pages
978-90-76871-68-4 (ISBN)
Description
This inaugural lecture gives an overview of the steps that have been taken by the European Union to develop a policy relating to disability and disabled people since its foundation. Initiatives in the period prior to the adoption of the Amsterdam Treaty were characterised by limited action programmes and a lack of binding policy measures. The inclusion in the EC Treaty of Article 13, which provides for the adoption of measures to address disability discrimination, the mobilisation of an active disability movement, and the recognition of a new social model of disability, have resulted in significant developments from the mid-1990s onwards. The most important legal development has been the adoption of the Framework Employment Directive in 2000, which prohibits employment related discrimination on the grounds of disability and requires that reasonable accommodations be made for disabled people. The impact of this provision in a number of Member States is considered and the author reflects on possible ways forward for the EU disability policy.
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Person
Professor Lisa Waddington holds the European Disability Forum Chair in European Disability Law at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. She graduated with a first class honours in law and politics from Birmingham University in 1989, and received her Doctorate of Law in 1993 from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, for her dissertation: 'More Disabled Than Others. The Employment of Disabled People within the European Community: An Analysis of Existing Measures and Proposals for Reform'. Subsequently she has published widely on European and comparative disability law.
Between 1993 and 2004 Professor Waddington was the editor of the Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, and a lecturer and senior lecturer at Maastricht University. Professor Waddington is currently the disability coordinator of the European Commission Expert Group on Non-Discrimination Law. In addition, in collaboration with universities and international institutions in Belgium and Ireland, she is working on a large EU research and education project which will result in a casebook on European non-discrimination law.
Between 1993 and 2004 Professor Waddington was the editor of the Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, and a lecturer and senior lecturer at Maastricht University. Professor Waddington is currently the disability coordinator of the European Commission Expert Group on Non-Discrimination Law. In addition, in collaboration with universities and international institutions in Belgium and Ireland, she is working on a large EU research and education project which will result in a casebook on European non-discrimination law.