Home

EEG statement: 10 Years Towards Inclusion

Commissioner Helena Dalli speech at Towards Inclusion conference

What EEG is

The European Expert Group on the transition from institutional to community-based support (EEG) is a coalition representing:

  • Children and their families;
  • People with disabilities and their families;
  • Homeless people;
  • People experiencing mental health problems;
  • Service providers;
  • Public authorities;
  • UN organisations.

EEG members come together because we believe institutionalisation of people must end.

Institutional is any residential care where:

  • residents are isolated from the broader community and/or compelled to live together;
  • residents do not have enough control over their lives and over decisions which affect them;
  • and requirements of the organisation itself tend to take precedence over the residents’ individual needs.

What EEG does

The EEG advocates to replace institutionalisation with family- and community-based support. The EEG reminds the EU and member states of their obligation to stop funding and to replace institutionalisation with family- and community-based support; based on:

  • United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,
  • United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
  • The UN Guidelines on the Use and Conditions of Alternative Care for Children
  • European Fundamental Rights Charter.

The EEG provides expertise on the transition from institutionalisation to family- and community-based support. We focus on how EU funding, law and policy should be used to facilitate the transition:

  • no spending on institutionalisation;
  • resources available to expand capacity and quality of family- and community-based support;
  • resources available to facilitate access to housing, early child care, inclusive education and accessible general public services and built environment;
  • resources available for monitoring of reforms at national level.

The EEG facilitates development of quality family- and community-based support; by quality we mean support that is:

  • respecting human rights of all people with care or support needs;
  • person-centred;
  • empowering.