On 30th May 2013 the Board members of EASPD gathered to discuss de-institutionalisation and the promotion of community based-services and take stock of the situation in Europe.
It is evident that inclusion of persons with disabilities is not a reachable objective if segregation and exclusion from the community are perpetrated. Deinstitutionalisation should be accompanied by the appropriate set-up of community based services including both mainstream and specialised facilities.
EASPD express its solidarity with persons with disabilities and with those supporting them and highlights that austerity measures in Greece, as in other countries, are breaking the backbone of the social services structure and are generating poverty and increasing social exclusion and one of the most dangerous consequences of the crisis is the risk of re- institutionalisation.
EASPD calls for a stop of the re-institutionalisation process which is currently taking place in some Member States. The negative consequences of institutionalisation have been widely shown and demonstrated for every field of life and for every group of people. It is time to put forward concrete planning for deinstitutionalisation and community-based settings involving persons with disability and all mainstream and disability stakeholders.
The EU budget negotiations will be concluded in the next weeks giving an important signal for the future of the Union, as the way budget will be allocated influences the possibility to build a more social Europe closer to its citizens’ needs.
EASPD calls upon European institutions to provide adequate funding for social inclusion, access to quality employment and social services. To ensure this at least 25% of the Cohesion Policy budget must be allocated to the European Social Fund (ESF) and an earmarking of at least 20% of the ESF to social inclusion and poverty reduction should be included.
Moreover, we call for the full inclusion of the ex-ante conditionalities relevant to the Structural Funds’ support of community-based alternatives to institutional care, in order to prevent financing of institutional care and to support the development of quality services available to all those who need them.
The EASPD board renews its committment to carry on the de-instutionalisation process
