27.6.2018   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 224/68

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having regard to Articles 2, 5, 9, 10, 19, 168 and 216(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and Articles 2 and 21 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU),

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having regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU,

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having regard to its resolutions of 17 June 1988 on sign languages for deaf people (1) and of 18 November 1998 on sign languages (2),

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having regard to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and its entry into force in the EU on 21 January 2011 in accordance with Council Decision 2010/48/EC of 26 November 2009 concerning the conclusion, by the European Community, of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (3),

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having regard to its resolution of 7 July 2016 on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, with special regard to the Concluding Observations of the UN CRPD Committee (4),

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having regard to General Comment No 4 (2016) by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on the right to inclusive education (5),

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having regard to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,

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having regard to Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation (‘Employment Equality Directive’) (6),

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having regard to Directive 2005/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 September 2005 on the recognition of professional qualifications (7),

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having regard to its resolution of 12 April 2016 on Erasmus+ and other tools to foster mobility in VET — a lifelong learning approach (8),

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having regard to the European Youth Forum policy paper on equality and non-discrimination (9),

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having regard to the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council of 2 December 2015 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States as regards the accessibility requirements for products and services (COM(2015)0615),

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having regard to the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 December 2012 on the accessibility of public sector bodies’ websites (COM(2012)0721),

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having regard to Directive 2010/64/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 October 2010 on the right to interpretation and translation in criminal proceedings (10),

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having regard to the Learning Outcomes and Assessment Guidelines of the European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters (efsli) for equal training opportunities for sign language interpreters and quality services for deaf citizens across the entire Union (11),

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having regard to the efsli/EUD sign language interpreter guidelines for international/European level meetings (12),

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having regard to the AIIC guidelines for spoken language interpreters working in mixed teams (13),

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having regard to the efsli report on the rights to sign language interpreting services when working or studying abroad (14),

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having regard to Rule 123(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.

whereas, as full citizens, all persons with disabilities, in particular women and children, including deaf and hard-of-hearing people, including those who use sign language and those who do not, have equal rights and are entitled to inalienable dignity, equal treatment, independent living, autonomy and full participation in society;

B.

whereas the TFEU requires the Union to combat discrimination based on disability when defining and implementing its policies and activities (Article 10) and gives it the power to adopt legislation to address such discrimination (Article 19);

C.

whereas Articles 21 and 26 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union explicitly prohibit discrimination on the grounds of disability and provide for equal participation of persons with disabilities in society;

D.

whereas there are approximately one million deaf sign language users in the EU (15) and 51 million hard-of-hearing citizens (16), many of whom are also sign language users;

E.

whereas national and regional sign languages are fully-fledged natural languages with their own grammar and syntax equal to spoken languages (17);

F.

whereas the EU’s multilingualism policy promotes foreign language learning and whereas one of its goals is for every European to speak two languages in addition to their mother tongue; whereas learning and promoting national and regional sign languages could support this goal;

G.

whereas accessibility is a precondition for persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully and equally in society (18);

H.

whereas accessibility is not only limited to the physical accessibility of the environment but extends to the accessibility of information and communication, including in the form of the provision of content in sign language (19);

I.

whereas professional sign language interpreters are equal to spoken language interpreters in terms of assignments and mission tasks;

J.

whereas the situation of sign language interpreters is heterogeneous among the Member States, ranging from informal family support to professional university-educated and fully qualified interpreters;

K.

whereas there is a lack of qualified and professional sign language interpreters in all the Member States and whereas the ratio of sign language users to sign language interpreters varies between 8:1 and 2 500:1, with an average ratio of 160:1 (20);

L.

whereas a petition (21) has been lodged requesting that Parliament allow petitions to be submitted in EU national and regional sign languages;

M.

whereas the Brussels Declaration on Sign Languages in the European Union (22) promotes a non-discriminatory approach to the use of a natural sign language, as required under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which has been ratified by the EU and all EU Member States except one;

N.

whereas the level and quality of subtitling on public and private television differs considerably across the Member States, ranging from less than 10 % to almost 100 %, with highly varying standards of quality (23); whereas there is a lack of data in most Member States with regard to the level of sign language interpretation on television;

O.

whereas the development of new language technologies could benefit sign language users;

P.

whereas, according to the CRPD, the denial of reasonable accommodation constitutes discrimination and whereas, under the Employment Equality Directive, reasonable accommodation must be provided to guarantee compliance with the principle of equal treatment;

Q.

whereas there is currently no direct communication access for deaf, deafblind or hard-of-hearing citizens to Members of the European Parliament and administrators of the institutions of the European Union and, vice versa, to deaf or hard-of-hearing people from within the EU institutions;

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