Text tabled : A6-0351/2006

  Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL), in writing. (PT) The various forms of discrimination and injustice faced by disabled people and their families are well known. Although progress has been made, there remains much to be implemented. One of the key priorities is to strengthen public policies aimed at ensuring that equal rights are effectively upheld. More investment is needed in public policies of health, education, social security and employment that will guarantee free access to high-quality services, that will promote social inclusion and that will combat poverty and exclusion.

The report adopted today refers to the different areas in which the actions of the Member States could be improved.

We also welcome the call, which Parliament has just adopted, for a specific directive on disability to be adopted and for the recently adopted UN International Convention of the Rights of Disabled Persons to be ratified and signed. Hence our vote in favour of the adopted resolution in the hope that due prominence will be attached to it.