The European Commission aims to increase the number of disabled workers in the EU institutions
The European Commission encourages people with disabilities to apply for jobs in the European Union institutions and gives assurance that all necessary arrangements will be made to create the necessary working conditions for them. Members of the European Parliament debated on the issue on the 15th of April. During the plenary session in Brussels the MEPs agreed: the European Union institutions need to set an example for the Member States in this issue.
According to RMDSZ MEP Csaba Sógor, solving the problem on a national level involves both an anti-discrimination approach and the introduction of a quota system. “While the quota approach is based on the assumption that disabled persons cannot compete on the labour market with the same opportunities as the rest of the society, therefore working places must be reserved for them; the non-discrimination approach assumes that the issue can already be solved through the guarantee of individual rights for equal treatment and through workplace adaptations” – said the MEP during the parliamentary debate, arguing that the two approaches can be combined to achieve better results. Sógor also stated that anti-discrimination actions were greatly helped by the Employment Equality Directive, which urged some Member States to adopt new legislation, and that similar tangible results can be achieved with a quota system.
The RMDSZ MEP finds it important that in an aging Europe members of the society be more effectively, more widely integrated into the labour market. This would have both social and economic benefits.
