Laws, Regulations & Policy European Disability Card: Travel Across EU to Become Easier for Persons with Disabilities by GTP editing team 27 November 2023 written by GTP editing team 27 November 2023 2 comments Share 0FacebookTwitterLinkedinWhatsappEmail 24 The Council of the European Union on Monday agreed on the directive establishing the European Disability Card and the European Parking Card for persons with disabilities. The announcement follows the legislative proposal tabled by the European Commission on September 6. The aim of the directive is to ensure equal access to special conditions or preferential treatment, such as reduced or zero entry fees, priority access, assistance and reserved parking spaces provided to persons with disabilities during short stays across the EU. This includes cultural and leisure events, sports and beach facilities and transport services. Furthermore, according to the Council’s agreed text, member states can decide to apply the same measures for stays longer than three months, including for EU mobility programmes. National authorities will be responsible for issuing physical and digital European disability cards, in an accessible format. The cards will be recognised throughout the EU as proof of disability. The Council took into account the principle of multilingualism: member states will be able to issue bilingual cards featuring both English and their national languages. The Council also gave member states the option of including a QR code on the cards, as the most effective and easy-to-implement tool to prevent fraud. Moreover, to ensure uniform implementation and mutual recognition across the Union, the European parking card will replace all existing parking cards for cross-border mobility within five years from the entry into force of the directive. The parking card will be issued in physical format, in line with the Council’s general approach. Issuing a digital European parking card will remain voluntary for member states. Awareness-raising Both member states and the Commission will be responsible for informing persons with disabilities about the European disability card and the European parking card for persons with disabilities, as well as the special conditions granted to them. According to the text agreed by member states, an EU website will provide relevant information on the European disability card and the European parking card for persons with disabilities. It will be available in all EU languages and in accessible formats. The proposed directive is part of the EU’s strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities 2021-2030. It builds on the experience of a pilot project for an EU disability card, which took place in eight member states, and on the already existing European parking card for persons with disabilities, which was based on a previous EU voluntary scheme. According to the Council, negotiations on the final shape of the directive are expected to start as soon as possible once the European Parliament has voted on its mandate at the beginning of 2024. Join the 15,000+ travel executives who read our newsletter Follow GTP Headlines on Google News to keep up to date with all the latest on tourism and travel in Greece. Share 0 FacebookTwitterLinkedinWhatsappEmail GTP editing team This is the team byline for GTP. The copyrights for these articles are owned by GTP. They may not be redistributed without the permission of the owner. previous post Investments, Parthenon Marbles Top Greek PM’s London Visit next post Greek Regional Airports See November Passenger Traffic Up by 15% You may also like Greece’s Hotel Market Sees Major Investments Over Four Months 5 February 2025 Greek Tourism Ministry Monitors Santorini Situation as Seismic Activity Continues 5 February 2025 Global Air Passenger Demand Reaches Record High in 2024, IATA Reports 5 February 2025 Greek PM Reassures Public About Santorini’s Ongoing Seismic Activity 5 February 2025 Milos: Ministry Suspends 5-star Hotel Construction Near Sarakiniko Beach 5 February 2025 ELIME and HELMEPA Join Forces for Safer, More Sustainable Greek Ports 5 February 2025 2 comments Jane 7 February 2024 - 15:13 Nobody from countries outside EU will benefit. We always found anyway that the blue badge was questioned in Greece and Spain, and always a problem before we had Brexit. All this does is make visitors from UK, Australia, Canada, Switzerland etc (and there are a LOT) who are disabled inferior to those in EU. Certainly not a good look for EU generally who benefit from tourism more tha most countries. I have no idea why its an exclusive club when all they need do is make a small charge to third countries for a temporary 2-3 weeks card, its not rocket science. Just a punishment for Uk and an inability to consider other third countries as valid and useful tourists with money to spend ! Reply Sandra Fawcett 28 November 2023 - 11:38 When we were part of the EU my husband was able to use his “blue badge” abroad and it was accepted in most EU states when we were travelling. Once we left the EU it wasn’t acceptable and even parking spaces with the international disability logo weren’t available to us. Presumably, as we no longer are part of the EU we won’t be offered a card or parking permit so won’t be able to benefit from any concessions for disabled visitors. Reply Leave a Comment Cancel Reply Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ
