In March 2016, the European Commission published the first outline of the European Pillar of Social Rights (the Social Pillar) and opened the consultation for inputs from stakeholders. Autism-Europe took part in this consultation process and recently published a specific position paper on its website.
The proposal put forward by the European commission seeks to identify a number of core principles common to the Eurozone Member States, in order to address challenges in the field of employment and social policies and allow a better implementation of social rights. The current proposal is that the Social Pillar will cover 20 domains.
Autism-Europe, along with other disability organisations notably calls for a real mainstreaming of the rights of people with disability when designing the Pillar, to ensure that their needs to access employment and social rights are properly addressed, in line with the provisions of the UN CRPD ratified by the European Union.