State Secretary Steinulf Tungesvik

Opening Speech

The conference "Solidarity across nations", 29 October 1999

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to participate at the opening of this important conference.

For Norway, international orientation and co-operation is a main pillar in all sectors of politics. Regarding the politics for disabled we emphasize this through broad participation in international organisations, full compliance of a whole row of international conventions and regulations, development projects in developing countries and in our neighbouring countries to the east.

One – paradoxical – result of this international orientation is that Norway, as you know, is not a member of the European Union. In the debate that settled this stand back in 1994, it was important for the winning opponents to keep the freedom to co-operate on the basis of international law in all directions, in stead of concentrating the whole international capacity and scope from a small country inwards in Western Europe.

This is not an excluding stand. A strong will and need to an active co-operation with the EU is a matter of course. The Agreement on the European Economic Area does provide for this on a broad range of issues. First of all to mention is trade. 75 percent of our exports go to the European Union and 70 percent of our imports come from those countries. In addition to trade Norway also take part in the European Union’s activities on many other issues like education, research, consumer affairs and social issues. Important social questions relate to people with disabilities, older persons and children and youngsters. The topic of this seminar – “Solidarity across generations” – address a number of highly important issues in the social field.

The Amsterdam Treaty has given the European Union a new platform for action for strengthening the position of people with disabilities and older persons within the Union. We hope this will give results in practice. Both article 13 on non-discrimination and article 137 on measures against social exclusion contain important goals. We will study the programmes being prepared with interest, to see whether they should be included in the EEA agreement. The EU Commission is also in the process of drafting a regulation on non-discrimination. Whether this regulation will apply in Norway and the other EFTA/EEA countries is a matter for discussion (between the EFTA/EEA states and the EU.)

I understand that the EDF did an active lobbying job and had a real impact on the contents of the anti-discrimination article. We welcome the emergence of a strong, independent European disability organisation. EDF’s origin was the Helios Disability Forum. We took part in the Helios programme and saw that the forum did an important job in the development of that program, and in influencing the EU Commission’s thinking on disability. I am sure that this role will be further developed in the coming years.

EU’s new dialogue with the disability movement is encouraging to those of us who believe that the EU and the whole of Europe should not be shaped solely by the market forces. We welcome EDF’s decision to include the EFTA/EEA states’ disability organisations, and are happy to contribute economically to their participation. The Norwegian Government feels that this is an important channel for our disabled citizens to make their voice heard concerning the development of a European disability policy – which will have both direct and indirect influence on conditions in our country.

We have, therefore, decided to give the EDF a financial grant. If the relevant EU budget line is included in the EEA budget in the future, our contribution will be included there. The amount we are contributing at the moment, is of the same size. In addition we finance a part-time policy officer seconded to the EDF from FFO for 12 months.

We have also given a special grant to help financing this seminar.

Another result of the Helios programme is the establishment of the EU Commission’s so-called High Level Group on Disability. We take part on an observer basis, as do the other EFTA/EEA countries. The group has so far functioned primarily as a forum for mutual information about national activities and the EU Commission’s work in stimulating and, to some extent, co-ordinating such activities, e.g. the December 3rd activities. “Future High Level Group Discussion Themes” is on the agenda for its meeting in Brussels today.

Perhaps the EU Commission should raise EU policy issues in the group at an earlier stage – e.g. the contents of the draft anti-discrimination regulation. One should also raise policy issues pertaining to the other DGs – transport, education etc. And it would be useful for the group to have a discussion on the effects of the application of the “mainstreaming” principle within the EU Commission so far. These are aspects which we hope to be able to offer the EU good experiences.

The European debate on disability issues - and not least the debate within EDF - does influence thinking also in Norway. A few years ago, the question of specific anti-discrimination legislation, or the question of a specific rights legislation – were not an issue in the Norwegian debate. Due to European and American influences this has now changed. These questions have been raised by the disability movement, and a Royal Commission to study them and make policy recommendations was appointed last summer and is scheduled to present their deliberation and recommendations at the end of next year.

The Royal Commission consists of members of different professions and from different areas of society. Four of the eleven members are representing organisations of disabled people. By courtesy of the European Commission, representatives of the Royal Commission took part in DG V’s recent mission to the USA to study the ADA legislation.

How the above mentioned Royal Commission is constituted also illustrates the active role the Norwegian organisations of disabled people have in relation to our national government. The next presentation this morning from our staff representative from the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs will give you some further examples of the active role the Norwegian organisations of disabled people have in ration to different levels of government.

On the agenda of our government is also an increased contribution to development assistance and co-operation. On these arenas organisations of disabled people take active part to promote and follow up on issues and projects related to disabled persons in development assistance. Several organisations of disabled people have this year constituted a co-operating body called the Atlas Alliance. The Alliance is an expansion of a smaller unit, now to include a majority of organisations of disabled persons in Norway. The Atlas Alliance has as a main goal to promote the rights of disabled people internationally. We welcome the Atlas Alliance as a party in development assistance programmes. Important to mention is also the project the Atlas Alliance has through the European co-operation programme with Central and Eastern Europe. Grants are given to support development of competence and to exchange knowledge between the Atlas Alliance and the All-Russian Society of Disabled People (ARSDP) when it comes to leadership training, development of organisation and communication within the network of their organisation.

I will also mention that the government is just about to present an Action plan on human rights, in Norway and abroad. An important section of the plan will be disabled people’s rights, the state’s obligations and their interpretation in Norwegian law.

On behalf of the Minister of social affairs, Magnhild Meltveit Kleppa, and myself I want to express our appreciation of the active role organisations of disabled people, and not at least the FFO, take to promote the awareness about disability issues and to promote the rights of disabled people. We congratulate FFO with the membership in EDF and we hope it will contribute to widen and to enrich our dialogues.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I thank you all for your attention and wish you good luck with your collaboration within the EDF.