Resolution (EEC) on the social integration of handicapped people, 1982-1986

The Council Resolution of 27 June 1974 established an initial action programme for the vocational training of handicapped persons (Official Journal No C 80 of 9.7.1974). The European Parliament, in its Resolution of 11 March 1981 (Official Journal No C 77 of 6.4.1981) stressed the need to promote at Community level the economic, social and vocational integration of disabled people.The Resolution of the Council and of the representatives of the Governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council, of 21 December 1981 on the social integration of handicapped people (Official Journal No C 347 of 31.12.1981) established a first action programme to promote such integration, noting that the United Nations Organization designated 1981 as International Year of the Disabled People and that this initiative was supported by the Community and its Member States. Member States were invited by the Resolution to : - Ensure that due account is taken of the need to remove barriers to the full participation of handicapped people in society;

- Facilitate the coordination of services concerned with handicapped people, and to encourage cooperation in this respect between the different bodies active in the field;

- Promote the participation of handicapped people, their representative organizations and their families in the framing and implementation of measures which directly affect them;

- Ensure that handicapped people may lead as independent a life as possible;

- Ensure that handicapped people do not shoulder an unfair burden of the effects, on both employment and resources, of economic difficulties;

- Promote measures to prepare handicapped people for an active life, in particular by integrating them in normal education and training systems wherever possible;

- Develop and implement measures on the housing and mobility of handicapped people and improved access to public buildings, transport and other public facilities;

- Encourage information activities designed to enable the public to understand the contribution it can make to the integration of handicapped people, and those activities directed at handicapped people themselves;

- Promote the development and availability of technical aids, the pooling of information and experience in the field and the application of new technologies.
To continue and, if possible, intensify measures to promote the economic and social integration of handicapped people, in order to enable them to make a productive and creative contribution to society.
Information not presently available.
The Commission was responsible for the implementation of the programme. In order to complement and support the efforts of the Member States, it set up a network of selected development actions to promote model coordination of the actions undertaken, especially at local level.