EU Elections

EUOBSERVER
100 million
disabled EU
voters deserve
better
Persons with disabilities face problems in being allowed
to vote, being able to cast their vote, understanding how
to vote, knowing who to vote for and more – even being
allowed on the ballot
By IOANNIS VARDAKASTANIS
This June, over 400 million voters are
called to cast their vote in the European
election. But for the 100 million persons
with disabilities living in the EU, the process
is riddled with barriers – barriers
that lead to unequal treatment and discrimination
in the electoral process.
Persons with disabilities face problems in
being allowed to vote, being able to cast
their vote, understanding how to vote,
knowing who to vote for and more —
even being allowed on the ballot. And
yet, we are disproportionately impacted
by the results of these same ballots.
The good news is that if there is political
will, there are ways to demolish these
barriers – and to get citizens with disabilities
deeply involved in the European
project. The European Disability movement
has proposals in four concrete areas
for European leaders to work on to
ensure disabled voters are able and committed
to the European project: first,
ensure we can vote; second, keep us informed;
third, propose concrete actions
to improve our lives; and finally, give us
an opportunity to be elected.
First, governments need to let persons
with disabilities exercise their right to
vote. There are still six EU countries that
completely deny this right to persons
with disabilities under guardianship:
Bulgaria, Estonia, Cyprus, Greece, Romania
and Poland.
If disabled voters are to believe in the
EU — and its claim to be a champion
of human rights and democracy — then
these countries must change. They need
to reform their laws. This is not unprecedented
— we are just asking for equality.
In fact, France, Germany and Spain
changed their laws before the European
elections of 2019. Since then, Luxembourg
and Slovenia also changed their
laws — Slovenia, the most recent, in February
2024.
We also need to be able to exercise our
right to vote. For example, a wheelchair-user
like my colleague Pirkko is
often not able to vote in secret because
there are no accessible booths in her
polling station in Finland. Alejandro and
Loredana, blind voters, struggle with the
lack of accessible voting machines in Belgium.
Second, persons with disabilities must
know how to vote and be informed on