The European Parliament of Persons with Disabilities – ETR

The first speaker we heard from was Yannis Vardakastanis,

the president of the European Disability Forum, who welcomed everyone

to the conference.

 

He told us about the Manifesto that the

European Disability Forum is currently working on.

 

We heard from Vera Jourova, who is from the European Commission,

and she talked about transport for people with intellectual disabilities.

 

Then we heard from Emily Reilly and she

says that there is still a lot of work to do for all people with intellectual

disabilities.

 

Then we heard from Karine Lalieux, and she told us that Belgium still

has a long way to go for people with intellectual disabilities.

 

All transport in Belgium will be accessible for all people with intellectual

disabilities and it will happen in the next few years.

 

To end the first part we heard from Martin Conway, who told us how

things are in Ireland for people with intellectual disabilities.

 

Then we heard from many different members of the European

Parliament, and they were talking about many different things to do for

people with intellectual disabilities.

 

Then we heard from Alexandre Gomez, a member of the European

Disability Forum, and he talked about what needs to be done for people

with intellectual disabilities.

 

We heard from the European Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli

and she told us about what the European Commission is doing to make

things easier for people with intellectual disabilities.

 

We then heard from Tamara Byrne, who is from Ireland. She is part of

Inclusion Europe and a member of the European Disability Forum

and she shared with us her life story about things in Ireland.

 

Then we heard from Markus Schefer, who is a member of the United

Nations Committee on the Rights of persons with Disabilities.

 

He talked about what the United Nations Committee on the Rights of

Persons with Disabilities is currently doing.

 

Then we had another debate by members of the European Parliament.

 

One person with a disability from Ireland shared with everyone her story.

 

She told us about how she was treated because she had a disability.

She said that the airplane company that she used to go to Belgium

treated her badly.

 

Then we had another session

and we heard from different people who were

members of the European Parliament.

 

We heard from Janez Lenarrcic, the European Commissioner for Crisis

Management.

 

She told us about things that still need to be

done to help all people with intellectual disabilities.

 

Then we heard from Valerii Sushevych, she is the head of the National

Assembly of Persons with Disabilities from Ukraine.

 

He told us there is still a lot of work to do to help people with intellectual

disabilities in Ukraine due to the war between Russia and Ukraine.

 

Then we heard from Paola Albrito and she is the director of the United

Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.

 

She told us about the work they are currently doing for people with

intellectual disabilities.

 

Then we heard from Idriss Maiga Alzouma

and he is the vice-president of the African Disability Forum.

 

He told us about the current work they are doing in his organisation for

people with intellectual disabilities who live in Africa.

 

Then to close the European Parliament of Persons

with Disabilities we heard from two people:

Dragos Pislaru, from the European Parliament’s Employment Committee.

Pat Clarke, the vice-president of the European Disability Forum.