Universal access to books for blind and visually impaired people

Strasbourg, 16 February 2012

Even in our digital ages the 30 million blind and visually impaired EU citizens just have limited access to books. Only five percent of all printed products are available in "accessible formats" such as Braille, large print or audio.

For Angelika Werthmann this means that people with visual impairments have been "robbed of their right to education" which is codified in Art. 14 of the EU Charta on Fundamental Rights and in Art. 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"At times where we fight for better training and education people with visual impairments have been excluded from this option. This discrimination must stop", Angelika Werthmann stated in yesterday´s plenary debate. She urged the Commission to take concrete actions in order to give visually impaired people equal opportunities.

In its resolution that was adopted today in plenary the European Parliament called on the Commission and the Council to support the legally binding "Blind Book Treaty" of the World Organisation for Intellectual Property (WIPO). The agreement provides for copyright exceptions that would allow an increased digitalisation of books and other printed documents.

Implementation of the directive on the recognition of professional qualifications

Strasbourg, 14 November 2011

The free movement of services as one of the four fundamental freedoms is one of the basic ideas of the European Union .

The unrestricted mobility of qualified workforce is a crucial element of the strategy that increases Europe´s position in international competition. Because of this it is necessary to tackle the huge faults of the national implementation of the directive.

In 2010 the internet portal SOLVIT was confronted with 220 cases (16% of all cases!) which were connected to the recognition of professional qualifications. This emphasizes the huge discrepancy between the existing EU law and the actual reality for the EU citizens. The major part of the difficulties the citizens are confronted with is due to a lack of transparency and the complexity of national rules. (In some cases the national authorities were even unable to inform the citizens which national agency is responsible for the recognition!) Thus, there are still significant obstacles for the fundamental law of free movement of workers that need to be eliminated.

The Application of the EU-Charter on Fundamental Rights

Brussels, 6 October 2011

The EU-Charter on Fundamental Rights became legally binding (in most member-states) with the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on 1 December 2009.

The Charta obliges the European institutions to act consistently with the rights documented in it. Though, article 51 of the Charta restricts its scope to situations where the institutions and Member States are implementing Union law and in accordance with their respective powers.

Every year, a large number of new cases dealing with the alleged lack/breach of Fundamental Rights are registered by the Committee on Petitions - 2010 152 petitions were submitted; in 2009 the number of petitions amounted to 164. Thereby, the subject of 'Fundamental Rights' is, after the environment, content of most petitions submitted to the European Parliament.

A seminar on the application of the Charter on Fundamental rights was organised today - jointly by the Committee on Petitions and the European Commission, DG Justice.

Feminicides in Central America and Mexico

Brussels, 4th October 2011

Feminicides - the murder of women - several hundred happen every year in Central America and Mexico. Ciudad Juaréz in the North of Mexico gained sad famousness due to the high number of murders of women: just in the year 2010 around 300 women were killed.

Feminicide results from patriarchy, poverty, the daily violence against women and the existence of areas outside legal jurisdiction.
The governments and the judiciary fail to protect the women. Although there are state efforts to combat the killings of women, these efforts are very insufficiently implemented. The criminal justice system does not operate at all or inadequately, so it occurs, that still a majority of the offenders are not being punished, often not even prosecuted. As well as family members of victims, human rights activists and the police and prosecutors as well are intimidated and threatened.

For several years the European Parliament deals with this topic in both in the Committee for Women´s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) as well as the Subcommittee for Human Rights (DROI).
Due to the still rising number of feminicides FEMM and DROI have organized a meeting on October 4th, 2011 in order to tackle this most extreme form of violence against women. Speakers from Latin America were also invited to report about the conditions and difficulties on location. The common outcome of this meeting is that the EU has to expand its efforts under all circumstances and has to take a clear political position on violence against women but also to implement it.
The European Parliament can and will use its bilateral relations in order to address these crimes and to support the Latin American countries to fulfill their obligation for prevention, investigation, prosecution and punishment.