A comprehensive and comparable set of data on employment of persons with disabilities is needed in order to monitor progress towards the implementation of Article 27 of the UN Convention and the objectives of the European Employment Strategy, the European Disability Strategy as well as to measure the evolution of labour market participation of persons with disabilities.

In its Resolution of 17 March 2008 on the situation of persons with disabilities in the European Union (2), the Council underlines that disability statistics are needed to establish a picture of the overall situation of persons with disabilities in Europe and that such statistical and research data allow informed disability policies to be formulated and implemented at the different levels of governance.

23. Considers that various support measures must be proposed so that both people with disabilities and their families can live normal lives on the same terms as people without disabilities and their families, as well as support measures for those – often relatives – who take economic and social responsibility for people with disabilities who, in many cases, require total dedication, something which isolates them and necessitates support at many levels; notes that, as things currently stand, women bear a large share of such responsibilities, both paid and unpaid; considers it self-evident that this is not a task primarily for one sex or ...[+++] the other and that the view that this is a responsibility for women should be actively combated;

59. Welcomes the adoption of the UN convention on the rights of people with disabilities; considers this to be a landmark convention, which has the potential to improve the lives of people with disabilities throughout the world; recalls that the convention on the rights of people with disabilities, which will be legally binding on those Member States that have ratified it, specifies that disability is a subject of human rights which must be protected;

In order to give disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility opportunities for air travel comparable to those of other citizens, assistance to meet their particular needs should be provided at the airport as well as on board aircraft, by employing the necessary staff and equipment.

1. Air carriers, their agents and tour operators shall take all measures necessary for the receipt, at all their points of sale in the territory of the Member States to which the Treaty applies, including sale by telephone and via the Internet, of notifications of the need for assistance made by disabled persons or persons with reduced mobility.