PhoneAbility

5. Obligatory Provision of Facilities for Disabled Users

Article 7 of the USD currently permits Member States to take specific measures for disabled end-users. Measures to ensure access to, and affordability of, basic services are obligatory, ‘where appropriate’. Measures to ensure that disabled users have a choice of undertakings are permitted. The revision proposals delete the ‘where appropriate’ qualification and make the permissive actions obligatory. 

The effect of the proposed changes is far from clear. Currently it is a matter for Member States to decide what is appropriate in their own territories, and so is the exercise of permissive powers. Removal of the ability of Member States to exercise discretion in these matters without a clearer statement of the objectives, or a definition of the obligatory measures to be taken, would be an empty gesture that it is hard to see the Member States accepting. Therefore it has to be assumed that the proposed new European Regulatory Authority will define the substance of the intended measures. Whether such a move is in the best interests of disabled end-users is perhaps debateable. The advantage of the present situation is that Member States can set their own priorities in the light of consultations with user groups. Comparisons of ‘best practice’ are facilitated, but outside the regulatory mechanism. The rider ‘in the light of national conditions’ is retained in the proposed Article 7.2, so the European Regulator would have to consider 27 sets of national conditions before making its recommendations. Clearly, ‘national conditions’ must be held to include other forms of legislation bearing upon accessibility, such as the DDA and its near-equivalents. Can the Regulator then adjust its recommendations so that they differ State by State, without interfering to an unacceptable extent in the internal affairs of each one?  The fear must be that this mechanism would simply set a threshold for a minimum level of service across the EU without raising the expectations for the optimum. This has been the major criticism of the universal service package to date.