Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis’ remarks at an event of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Persons with Disabilities in the framework of the Conference on the Future of Europe (Athens, 21.12.2021)
“Europe is our common home and we should make it better, more functional, more accessible and more efficient,” emphasized Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, addressing today an event on People with Disabilities titled” European Union of Inclusion and Equal Treatment for All” and organized at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the framework of the Conference on the Future of Europe. “If the disabled are excluded from the social, political, economic and social life, then society is essentially mutilating itself. “We cannot move forward without them, on the contrary we can proceed only along with them,” the Alternate Minister stressed.
The event, which was held at the highest institutional level, was attended by Minister of State and National Coordinator for Disability Policies , Georgios Gerapetritis, Deputy Minister of Justice for International Cooperation and Human Rights George Kotsiras, New Democracy MEP Stelios Kympouropoulos, President of the National Confederation of Disabled People, Ioannis Vardakastanis, President of the National Accessibility Authority, Konstantinos Stefanidis, President of the Hellenic Paralympic Committee, George Kapellakis, President of the National Center for Public Administration and Local Government Paraskevi Dramalioti and Executive Director of the Center for European Constitutional Court-Themistokles and Dimitris Tsatsos Foundation, Dr. Maria Mousmouti.
In particular, Mr. Varvitsiotis stressed the importance of the Conference on the Future of Europe so that the problems of people with disabilities be heard, noting that “now is the time for Brussels to remain silent and give the floor to all European citizens”.
In addition, the Alternate Minister pointed out that during the pandemic people with disabilities were even more deprived, having already been deprived enough regarding freedom of access, freedom of movement, freedom of communication and freedom of equal opportunities. That is the reason, Mr. Varvitsiotis said, ” why now we have to work on implementing policies that will bring people with disabilities much closer to the decision-making centers”.
The Alternate Minister underlined that “Kyriakos Mitsotakis government, having adopted the National Action Plan, addresses in practice long-standing injustices against our most vulnerable citizens, giving people with disabilities an increasing role and more accessibility while policies that until now were dispersed falling within the competency of different Ministries are now being integrated”. It is reminded that in the context of the modernization of disability policies, a special website of the Greek government (amea.gov.gr) is available.