Programme

9.00 a.m. – 9.15 a.m.    Registration and coffee

9.15 a.m. – 09.25 a.m.    Opening remarks

Irena Petraitienė, Permanent Study Group on Disability Rights, European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)

09.25 a.m. – 11.00 a.m.    Panel 1: The future of the EU Disability Strategy after 2020

Moderator: Linas Lasiauskas, Permanent Study Group on Disability Rights, EESC

Emmanuelle Grange, Unit Disability and Inclusion, DG EMPL, European Commission (EC)

Catherine Naughton, European Disability Forum

Helga Stevens, Member of the European Parliament and co-chair of the Disability Intergroup (recorded message)

Martha Stickings, Fundamental Right Agency

Elpida Apostolidou, European Ombudsman

Open floor discussion

11.00 a.m. – 12.50 a.m.     Panel 2: Contributions by disabled people’s organisations and civil society organisations on follow up to the EU Concluding Observations

Moderator: Gunta Anča, Permanent Study Group on Disability Rights, EESC

Roundtable with Representatives from: ENIL (Frank Sioen), IDCC, Inclusion Europe (Milan Šveřepa), ENUSP, Autism Europe, MHE (Maria Nyman), EUD (Mark Weathely), EASPD (Luk Zederloo) and from: Eurochild and Open Doors National Coordinators (Katerina Nanou), EWL, AGE-Europe (Julia Wadoux), Youth Forum, COFACE (Magdi Birtha), HRW, Equinet (Jessica Machacova), UNICEF Europe, EFC.

Open floor discussion

12.45 a.m – 01.00 p.m.     Closing remarks

Irena Petraitienė, Permanent Study Group on Disability Rights (EESC)

Ioannis Vardakastanis, Permanent Study Group on Disability Rights (EESC)

01.00 p.m     End of the hearing

Participants can speak in French, English ;  Danish, Italian, Greek, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish and Slovenian and listen to French, English, Italian, Lithuanian and Polish

International sign language interpretation provided