Success of the incluD-ed meetings in Brussels (29th and 30th May 2013)
Mon, 10/06/2013
Tatiana Mora from the incluD-ed Network Secretariat represented the European Network of Inclusive Education & Disability in a series of meetings with important actors, MEPs and organisations of inclusive education and disability in Brussels on 29th and 30th May.
The objective of the presentation of the network to key European institutions in Brussels was threefold: strengthen incluD-ed visibility, potentiate concrete collaboration and open possibilities for participation in spaces for debate.
> At the European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education, Mrs. Mora met with Flora Bellour (Policy Officer Assistant) and Laura Vesajoki (Project Assistant) members of the team of Victoria Soriano. Both were very impressed and positive by the work of the network and its evolution. The Agency will invite incluD-ed to the conferences and meetings they organise and include in the Agency’s referrals’ websites banners and links of incluD-ed. Furthermore, incluD-ed will be directly informed about the Agency project ‘Young people with disabilities at the European Parliament’ to be implemented in 2014.
> IncluD-ed also met with Mrs. Elina Jokisalo, Communications Officer at the European Schoolnet EUN, a network of 30 European Ministries of Education aiming to bring innovation in teaching and learning to key stakeholders such as Ministries of Education, schools and researchers. Mrs. Jokisalo was very interested in our work since they run the Special Needs Education network SENnet http://sennet.eun.org/ which provides information and support for those working to develop the use of technology and to improve access for school age learners with special educational needs. The project runs until November 2014 and can provide the network with good practices in terms of research covering barriers and opportunities to implementing the principles of inclusion of learners with SEN in mainstream schools.
incluD-ed suggested the inclusion of disability to their Innovative teacher training at the CPDLab courses. The CPDLab project plans, develops and delivers three courses for teachers’ professional development. The main audience for the trainings is teachers and trainers involved in continuing professional development in education at school, region or country level. The courses are delivered at European Schoolnet's Future Classroom Lab in Brussels.
> IncluD-ed also met with MEP Ádám Kósa who is Member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and President of the Disability Intergroup Group. He was very enthusiastic about the work of the network and about the local promoting groups in each country. Mr. Kósa will circulate the incluD-ed Policy papers with the Accessibility Intergroup as well as the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, at the EP, specifically those related to the Erasmus for All and Accessibility of Public Sector Bodies’ websites. This dissemination will reach more than 100 MEPs’. The network will equally support the Disability Intergroup Group position paper on public sector bodies’ websites which is in line with incluD-ed position paper, especially the statement that the scope of the directive has to be extended to include all websites delivering publicly available services
Mr. Kósa proposed to organize a small presentation/exhibition of the network in the following months in the European Parliament. The presentation would be aimed at the Disability Intergroup but also inviting MEP’s of the countries involved in the network. The network will follow on this possibility with Spanish MEP Rosa Estaras-Ferragut.
The network will inform from now on regularly on the work of the Disability Intergroup and keep the incluD-ed virtual community up to date on the draft report on the “Impact of the crisis on access to care for vulnerable groups” and the Implementation of Council Directive establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation.
> The meeting with Alba Prieto Gonzáles, Project Adviser at the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) responsible for the Lifelong Learning Programme, Erasmus Networks and Fostering the Excellence and Innovation in Higher Education. She opened the incluD-ed network possibility to cooperate with Erasmus networks. Furthermore, she gave the network a lot of references of Multilateral projects (Compendia 2009) to be contacted for good practices and synergies.
> The meeting with Margarita Akritidou (Assistant to Marie-Christine Vergiat), MEP and member of the CULT Committee on Culture and Education, was unfortunately cancelled due to last minute reasons.
Next to these meetings, incluD-ed attended the Conference “Young People and Mental Health: Intervention and Early Intervention in Europe”, organised by Public Policy Exchange UK, to make some key contacts and present the network’s work (Good Practice publication, good practice criteria, position papers...).
incluD-ed has achieved its objectives during its visit in Brussels. We have established relations with the visited institutions, relations that have to be strengthened and nourished from now on and we have identified concrete opportunities for collaboration and synergies. New doors have been opened as well as new contacts proposed in order to go further in the line of giving visibility to incluD-ed’s work.
The most important output of the meetings was the window of visibility provided by MEP Adam Kósa within the EP, more specifically with the Disability Intergroup. We are very pleased with this opportunity, in line with the central axis of our incluD-ed Network of influencing policy, since it gives us the chance to strengthen our role as a relevant actor on inclusive education at European level.
