On 24th March 2024, the EU institutions officially adopted the EU Disability Card and the EU Parking Card, as well as the report on extending the EU Disability Card to third-country nationals being approved.
The EU Disability Card will include:
- Transport services, even if some exceptions will apply.
- Provisions to access support when taking part in EU Mobility Programmes e.g. Erasmus.
- The European Disability Card will be issued and renewed free of charge.
- EU-level website and national websites with information on the Card. The information should be made accessible in the national sign language or in International Sign – to be determined.
- Safeguards to protect the Cardholders’ privacy.
- Member States can decide to extend the use of the Card to longer stays.
Some of the amendments to the Card, we advocated for at EUD, although they had been included in the EU Parliament report, were not included in the final version. For instance, it will not include:
- Any information about the person’s disability(ies) on the Card itself, even via access symbols, as we had advocated for in response to this being highlighted by our members. This would have bridged the communication barrier for deaf people when communicating their disability and corresponding reasonable accommodation measures to public authorities e.g. national sign language interpretation. Deaf people often face discriminatory responses when trying to seek reasonable accommodation, such as being brought out a wheelchair. We had hoped that by having these access symbols included on the Card, such situations could be avoided.
- Temporary access to disability support and allowance when persons with disabilities move to work and study abroad. As it is, persons with disabilities, including deaf people, might not have access to support while undergoing lengthy “reassessment” processes.
To read more about how the EU Disability Card will benefit the EU deaf community, please read our analysis.
Next steps:
While the political process is now finished, there are some delays regarding the legal editing of the text and its legal translation to the 27 EU languages. The deadline for implementation – for the Cards to be a reality – will only start after publication of the text. This means that the official text will not be approved before the European elections. EU Member States will have 42 months to start providing the Cards, including 30 months to transpose the legislation (that is to create national laws to obey it). This means that the Card will only fully become a reality in 4 years which is a longer timeline than we had expected.
