All but one of the EU Member States, and the EU itself, have ratified the CRPD, committing themselves to achieving independent living for persons with disabilities. Realising this goal requires redirecting funding from institutional services to community-based services. Evidence that FRA has collected indicates that there is a lack of comprehensive data on whether or not such a funding shift is under way in the EU Member States. However, examples indicate that many Member States continue to invest heavily in institutions for persons with disabilities.
EU Member States, and the European Commission when ESIF are involved, should phase out investment in institutions. Instead, they should sufficiently fund services in the community that persons with disabilities guide and control. They should pay particular attention to developing personalised funding options such as direct payments and personal budgets.
When funding deinstitutionalisation processes, the EU Member States and the European Commission should ensure a smooth transition. They should not withdraw institutional services providing essential support before community-based services are in place
The EU and its Member States are obliged to ensure that ESIF are used to further the implementation of the CRPD. This includes deinstitutionalisation and the right to independent living. This report shows that measures introduced for the 2014–2020 funding period can serve as powerful tools to ensure that funds are allocated in line with the CRPD and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. These measures include the ex-ante conditionalities and practical guidance on how to use ESIF to further deinstitutionalisation.
FRA evidence also shows, however, that realising the promise of these tools requires strengthening the monitoring of ESIF use and applying financial corrections where funds are misspent. The report follows Guideline VII of the European Ombudsman 2015 decision in highlighting the important role that public authorities and independent bodies, including civil society, can play in providing the information necessary for effective monitoring and control of ESIF.
The European Commission should continue to work with EU Member States to set up and sustain effective, well-funded and independent ESIF monitoring committees. These committees should include representatives of disabled persons’ organisations, with equal decision-making rights.
The European Commission should apply financial corrections as stipulated by the ESIF regulations for any irregularities. This includes when funds are used to keep people with disabilities in institutional settings by renovating existing institutions or building new institutions. When imposing economic penalties, the European Commission should ensure that these steps do not worsen the fundamental rights situation of persons with disabilities.
When monitoring and evaluating ESIF use, EU institutions and Member States should use relevant information and data that EU and national authorities, national human rights bodies and civil society organisations have collected. The European Commission should consider launching an online platform for organisations to report abuses of funds and submit complaints and shadow reports, as the European Ombudsman recommended.
Deinstitutionalisation in the spirit of the CRPD involves transforming support services for persons with disabilities, so that a range of individualised support in the community is available. This has major implications for the funding of such services.
Arrangements for funding services for persons with disabilities in the EU Member States are very complex. They often involve multiple levels of government and different funding sources, as well as a variety of service providers. Local and regional authorities play a key role within this complex picture, FRA evidence shows. Regardless of the national approach to funding community-based services, achieving deinstitutionalisation requires coordination between national, regional and local authorities, both within and across different sectors.
EU Member States should develop mechanisms to ensure effective coordination between national, regional and local budgetary authorities involved in funding services for persons with disabilities, both within and across different sectors. This should include creating platforms for regular and structured exchanges of experiences across all bodies responsible for funding deinstitutionalisation and community-based services.
EU Member States, and the European Commission when ESIF are involved, should develop training programmes on the implications of the CRPD for financing services for persons with disabilities. These can build on existing training for European Commission desk officers and national managing authorities on using ESIF for deinstitutionalisation. Particular attention should focus on enhancing the capacity of local and regional authorities.
The European Commission and EU Member States should ensure that persons with disabilities and their representative organisations, and national human rights bodies, are actively involved throughout the design, delivery and evaluation of training programmes.
This report underlines the lack of robust, comparable and timely data on funding for deinstitutionalisation and community-based services. Such data gaps impede needs-based budgetary planning. They also restrict the ability of Member States to make the transition from institutional to community-based support a reality. Moreover, as FRA evidence shows, data gaps prevent Member States from showing meaningful progress in implementing Article 19 of the CRPD.
EU Member States should collect and collate reliable, comparable and timely data on funding for deinstitutionalisation and community-based services. To improve accountability and transparency, these data should be publicly available. This could include collecting and publishing data for applying human rights-based indicators, such as those that FRA developed on Article 19 of the CRPD.